Telangana HC junks plea challenging Harish Rao's election win
Hyderabad: The Telangana high court on Tuesday dismissed an election petition challenging the election of T Harish Rao as MLA from Siddipet Assembly Constituency, calling the allegations vague, baseless and lacking material facts.
Justice K Sarath pronounced the order while allowing an interlocutory application filed by Harish, who urged the court to reject the election petition filed by his political rival, G Chakradhar Goud, who had contested against Harish in Siddipet. Chakardhar had alleged malpractices, including improper acceptance of nomination, suppression of criminal cases and discrepancies in property disclosures.
The court noted that Chakardhar failed to raise objections during scrutiny or provide evidence of improper nomination acceptance.
The MLA had disclosed pending criminal cases and convictions in his affidavit (Form 26), while the petitioner provided no specifics on alleged suppression. The complainant's claims that agricultural land was misrepresented as non-agricultural land lacked authenticated revenue documents, the court said.
Though he made allegations against Harish's poll expenditure, he did not submit records or demonstrate violations.
The judge also looked at allegations of manipulated voting percentages (45% to 85% in an hour) and said that there was no booth-wise data or copies of the complaints made to the authorities to substantiate these allegations.
The election petition lacked concise material facts as required under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the judge said. He also said that Chakaradhar's reliance on unverified WhatsApp audio and video clips without corroborative evidence was insufficient.
Citing Supreme Court precedents in Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, Harishankar Jain cases, the judge said bald allegations without triable issues warrant summary dismissal.
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