Orissa HC scraps PIL on ‘ghost' voting in Kantabanji Assembly election

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Monday rejected the public interest litigation (PIL) alleging ghost voting in the election to Kantabanji Assembly constituency.

According to sources, a plea was filed in the High Court alleging that the total number of votes counted in the constituency was found out to be more than that of the total number of voters in the region.

Hearing the PIL, the apex court ruled that cases pertaining to election matters cannot be decided on a writ petition and quashed the petition.

The Government Counsel appearing for the Election Commission of India, Gopal Agarwal said, "In any case of dispute concerning election, the Court cannot decide based on a writ petition as it is unconstitutional. In Section 80 Representation of People’s Act, it has been mentioned that no election shall be called in question except by an election petition presented in accordance with the provisions of this Part."

During the recent 2019 general elections, Congress candidate Santosh Singh Saluja won Assembly the seat after a nail biting contest against his nearest rival BJP’s Laxman Bag by a margin of just 128 votes.