The Kerala High Court, on Tuesday, April 23, dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) filed against Thiruvananthapuram’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar alleging that he furnished false information in his affidavit during his nomination. A bench of Justices VG Arun and S Manu, while dismissing the petition, said that their “hands are tied” and that the petition cannot be considered at this stage as the election process has commenced. The PIL was filed by Congress leader-advocate Avani Bansal and Renjith Thomas, who is a software professional based out of Bengaluru.
According to the petitioners, Rajeev had allegedly suppressed details about his assets in a “deliberate attempt to misrepresent his financial status”. They also alleged that he did not declare significant portions of his assets and that no action has been taken on their complaints in the regard to the Election Officer and the Chief Electoral Officer.
The bench had orally observed that their complaint has been forwarded to higher authorities as the returning officer cannot decide it alone.
Avani Bansal, on April 22 alleged that the returning officer delayed forwarding the complaint to the authorities concerned to give Rajeev Chandrasekhar more time till voting in Kerala is completed.
“Section 36 of the Representation of People Act requires the ‘Returning Officer shall examine the nomination papers and shall decide all objections which may be made to any nomination,” she added.
The petitioners, in their complaint, had also alleged that Rajeev Chandrasekhar had a history of furnishing false information and that his nomination is in ‘utter and repeated violation’ of the relevant provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950, the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, and as per the compendium given on the Election Commission of India's website.
Avani and Renjith had earlier filed a complaint against Rajeev with the Returning Officer and Thiruvananthapuram collector Geromic George. They asked him to reject Rajeev’s nomination as he provided false information in his affidavit.
Rajeev had declared that he filed only Rs 680 as income tax returns in the financial year 2021-22, in his affidavit and that he owned only one bike that was purchased in 1994 for Rs 10,000 and that his profession was “social service”. According to his declarations, he has movable assets worth around Rs 9 crores and immovable assets around Rs 14 crore.
