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Plea against Pratibha dismissed
The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed the petition after observing that there was no ground to take it up, reports Bhadra Sinha.
After the Supreme Court rejected his plea seeking cancellation of nomination papers of UPA-Left presidential nominee Pratibha Patil, Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma on Tuesday approached the Election Commission for redressal of his grievances.
The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed the petition after observing that there was no ground to take it up. However, a bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and PK Balasubramanyan had given the petitioner the liberty to approach the appropriate authority for redressing his grievances.
The Delhi-based advocate had on Monday filed a public-interest petition urging the court to cancel Patil's nomination papers filed before the Election Commission for the forthcoming presidential poll. The petition was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, which allows a person to directly approach the Supreme Court for the enforcement of fundamental rights.
Sharma said Patil was an undischarged insolvent because the sugar factory of which she was the founder-member and then chairperson owed Rs 17.7 crore to the Mumbai District Co-operative Bank.
The judges, however, did not agree with the contention. They said Patil was not an undischarged insolvent until a court declared her one. Further, they found the petition incomplete beit was not substantiated by any evidence.
The judges said, "You must satisfy us whether she has been declared as undischarged insolvent by a court or not. If not, there is no reason for us to order cancellation of her nomination papers."
When the government's officers said the petition should not have been entertained, the bench said, "How can we stop it?”
(With inputs from PTI)
