Poll case: No HC relief to Eshwar

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday refused to dismiss an election petition filed against social welfare minister Koppula Eshwar, on his election from Dharmapuri constituency in 2018. Further, the court decided to hear the petition, filed in 2019 by Congress candidate Adduluri Laxman, who lost to Eshwar by 441 votes, regularly from Wednesday.

In an interim application, Eshwar contended that the petition did not adhere to the rules and procedures of the Representation of People’s Act, especially Section 81(1) which mandated the immediate presence of the election petitioner or their advocate during the filing of the petition.

He also argued that his opponent played fraud and suppressed facts while filing the election petition, citing an affidavit filed by Laxman that he had a copy of the CCTV footage of the counting process. Eshwar contended that filing an application in 2022 and seeking that the court directs the Election Commission of India to produce the CCTV footage amounted to fraud.

Countering the contentions, Laxman said that Eshwar had previously filed an application on similar grounds which was rejected by the High Court and then the Supreme Court. He requested the court to call a report from the High Court registrar.

After considering the contentions, Justice K. Lakshman rejected the plea of Eshwar, who requested a dismissal of the election petition filed against him. However, the court directed the High Court registrar to submit a report about the presence of the election petitioner or his advocate while filing the election petition, mandated under Section 81(1) of the Representation of People’s Act.