Delhi HC grants time to EC to file reply on plea challenging reduction of Sikkim CM's disqualification period

The Delhi High Court will on March 27 hear a petition challenging the order of the Election Commission of India (ECI) which had reduced the disqualification period of Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang by over five years.

A division bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and C Hari Shankar granted more time to the respondents including the poll body and central government to file response on the plea.

Tamang was found guilty by a court of Sikkim for misappropriation of government funds. He was barred from contesting elections for six years after completing his one-year prison term in a graft case in 2018.

In the petition, Dek Bahadur Katwal, the General Secretary of the Sikkim Democratic Front, contended that the EC had, one day before last of filing nominations, passed an order in favour of the Tamang and reduced the period of disqualification.Katwal also sought a direction to declare Section 11 of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) ultra vires, unconstitutional, null and void and being violative of the Constitution.Section 11 of the RP Act, 1951, had allowed the EC to reduce the disqualification period of the Chief Minister.