By Rajesh Pandey
Hearing an election petition challenging the election of Prayagraj’s BJP MLA Harsh Vardhan Bajpayee, the Allahabad High Court has directed to list this petition on May 5,2025 for framing of the issues.
The court also directed the parties to submit draft issues (points for trial), which will be finalized by the court.
This election petition has been filed by an ex-MLA. Anugrah Narain Singh, who lost as a Congress candidate against Bajpayee in the 2022 UP assembly election from the city north of Prayagraj. As per law, the framing of issues means the beginning of the trial. Now, certain points will be made on which the trial will commence.
Holding that the plaint cannot be rejected, Justice Siddhartha Varma in his order dated April 22 said, “After striking off some paragraphs, the plaint now discloses specific cause of action, the petition cannot be thrown out as such and therefore, the plaint cannot be rejected under order VII rule 11 of Civil Procedure Code (CPC).
The election petition filed by Anugrah Narain Singh through senior advocate Shailendra requested the court to declare election of Bajpayee as MLA from city north as null and void.
However, appearing on behalf of Bajpayee, additional advocate general and senior advocate Manisha Goyal filed objection and requested the court to strike off some paragraphs from election petition.
The grounds taken for striking off various paragraphs were that they were frivolous, vexatious, unnecessary, irrelevant, and scandalous, and they were an abuse of the process of the court.