Orissa high court moved against BJD leader's election

CUTTACK: An election petition filed in the Orissa high court has challenged the election of BJD leader Parsu Ram Dhada from the reserved Soro assembly constituency.
BJP candidate Rakesh Kumar Malik, who had ended up as Dhada's nearest rival, filed the petition, seeking declaration of election of Dhada 'to be null and void' as he had allegedly benefited by utilizing "fabricated" caste certificate and contested from the constituency reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates,.
While filing his nomination papers, Dhada had claimed to be Kaibarta by caste when he belonged to Ghani caste, which is not listed as Scheduled Caste, the petition said.
According to the petition, the revenue records in respect of landed properties of Dhada in Khandasahi village indicate that his father's caste stands recorded as 'Ghani' . There are also other record of rights which indicate the name of his great grandfather of Dhada wherein their caste has been mentioned as 'Ghani'.
"The caste or tribe dies not change by passage of time. The change of caste by Parsu Ram Dhada in some of the recent revenue documents certainly cannot confer the benefit of Scheduled Caste on him for all practical purposes. He was a Ghani and remains as Ghani. He cannot style himself as Kaibarta contrary to all earlier revenue documents depicting his caste as Ghani. Therefore, it can be safely concluded that Dhada in in order to avail the benefits of scheduled caste has consciously manipulated some of the revenue records which is completely beyond law," Malik contended in the petition.
"Since the nomination of Dhada is based upon a false, fabricated and concocted caste certificate, the acceptance of the same by the returning officer in respect of reserved seat, is accordingly to be treated as improper acceptance of nomination paper", the petitioner further contends.
In his petition Malik said the Returning Officer had rejected objections raised on this ground that no decision can be taken as an election petition filed in 2014 challenging election of Dhada is pending in the Orissa High Court.
Two election petitions filed by Rakesh Malik and Mrutyunjay Jena challenging the election of Dhada in 2014 are pending in the High Court. Official records indicate that the case is pending before Justice S.Pujahari, who had reserved judgment on March 7, 2017.