Rs 10,000 cost on Vijender Gupta for noncompliance of HC order

The Delhi High Court today imposed Rs 10,000 as costs on BJP leader Vijender Gupta after he failed to comply with the order pertaining to filing of documents in a case in which he moved a petition against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in 2014.
Gupta has filed the petition seeking cancellation of Delhi chief minister's election in 2013 Assembly polls in which the court had asked him to file reply to AAP leader's application accusing him of filing unsigned affidavit in his plea.
Justice Vipin Sanghi, however, gave one more opportunity to Gupta, BJP MLA from Rohini constituency here, to file his response to Kejriwal's application by November 21.

The court directed him to deposit the amount in favour of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority.
It also warned the BJP leader that if he fails to file his response, it would allow Kejriwal's application seeking dismissal of Gupta's election petition.
It orally observed that Gupta was prolonging the proceedings because he has not removed the defect in an affidavit filed by him and which was pointed out way back in August 2015.

The court has now fixed the matter for further hearing on November 24.
Gupta, who is also the Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, in his petition has sought that the election of Kejriwal in 2013 be declared as void as the AAP leader had exceeded the poll expense limit of Rs 14 lakh.

The court had earlier sought the presence of an aath commissioner, who had affixed her stamp on the affidavit. She had told the court that Gupta had signed the affidavit.
Kejriwal has said that the unsigned affidavit was noticed during Gupta's cross examination by a court of joint registrar, which in its order held that it was not an affidavit in the eyes of the law as it was unsigned and, hence, the petition was without any affidavit.
On September 26, 2014, the court had framed the issues to be decided on the election petition, saying it would decide whether the expenses incurred by Kejriwal in the 2013 Assembly elections were in contravention of the Representation of People Act and whether he had indulged in corrupt practices within the meaning of the Act.

Gupta has alleged that Kejriwal had indulged in corrupt practices and incurred an expenditure of nearly Rs 94.80 lakh during the campaigning.