Odishatv Bureau

Cuttack/Bhubaneswar:  The Orissa High Court has directed for fresh election to the post of Corporator of Ward 18 of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) after declaring the election of Sukanti Subudhi to the post null and void.

The order came following a writ petition filed by Punam Parida challenging  Subudhi’s election to the post. Parida had earlier unsuccessfully contested the election from Ward 18 for the post of Corporator.

In 2014, Parida had challenged acceptance of Subudhi’s nomination paper before District Judge, Khurda alleging that there is complete difference between the candidate’s name in nomination paper and educational certificates that mentioned her name as Dhadi Jena. However, the District Judge had dismissed the petition. Parida then moved High Court over the order.

Subudhi had said that Dhadi was her nick name and as matter of ordinary practice, her parents had entered her nick name in school record. However, she had not submitted any affidavit or other documents to justify the same. Interestingly, the educational certificates accompanying Subudhi’s nomination papers mentioned her year of passing as 1988 while an affidavit enclosing the transfer certificate described it as 1998.

The High Court in its order said ‘the nomination paper was invalid and should have been rejected at the time of scrutiny itself.’

BMC Mayor Anant Jena, who is now in charge of Ward 18 after dismissal of the Corporator, said to OTV that he has sent the High Court order to the Law Department to decide the next course of action. “Meanwhile, all the civic activities of Ward 18 will continue normally under my supervision. We will take the next step as per the Law Department’s guidance,” he said.

scrollToTop