Delhi HC Tells Somnath Bharti To Refile Petition Against Bansuri Swaraj

The Delhi High Court on Monday has highlighted numerous errors in AAP leader Somnath Bharti’s petition challenging the election of BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections due to alleged corrupt practices.

The court instructed Bharti to submit a revised version of the petition.

Justice Manmeet PS Arora noted that the petition contained many typographical mistakes, making it hard to comprehend its claims. Additionally, the references to respondents in the petition did not match those in the memo of parties and synopsis, according to the counsel.

The court granted Bharti ten days to file a corrected petition and scheduled the next hearing for August 14.

When Bharti’s counsel requested the court to issue notices to the respondents, the judge responded, “There are too many mistakes. Correct the petition first. I can’t issue notice like this. I will simply adjourn it. Please file a corrected petition.”

Both Bharti and Swaraj had contested from the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat. According to the plea, Bharti received 3,74,815 votes, while Swaraj obtained 4,53,185 votes as per the returning officer.

The petition, filed under Sections 80 and 81 of the Representation of the People Act, accused Swaraj, her election agent, and others of corrupt practices. It also claimed that former AAP minister Raaj Kumar Anand ran as a Bahujan Samaj Party candidate to aid Swaraj by splitting the vote share. The plea mentioned that Anand later joined the BJP on July 10.

The petition alleged that Anand, who was an AAP minister, actively campaigned for Bharti until April 9 but abruptly resigned on April 10. On election day, Bharti was reportedly shocked to see Swaraj’s booth agents distributing pamphlets with her ballot number, photo, election symbol, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image, urging voters to choose Ballot no.1.

“…such an act certainly qualifies to be a corrupt practice. This was also reported to the respondent no. 3 (returning officer) but all in vain,” the petition alleged.

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