Terminated IPS Officer Pankaj Choudhary moves high court against cancelation of nomination
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IPS Pankaj Choudhary at the press conference in Jaipur
Jaipur: Terminated IPS Officer and BSP Candidate Pankaj Choudhary has moved Rajasthan High court on Friday after his nomination paper from Barmer-Jaisalmer seat for upcoming Lok Sabha polls were rejected by Election Commission. He is seeking direction to the election commission from court to issue him a Certificate that will enable him to fight the upcoming elections.
Lok Sabha 2019 polls on Barmer seat are scheduled for April 29 and the nomination process has already been over for it. Choudhary now wants to contest elections from Bikaner seat for which he is demanding a certificate from election commission at earliest that will enable him to contest the elections.
Bikaner constituency will go on polls on May 6. The last day of nomination for the seat is April 18. Choudhary is demanding the certificate before the last date of nomination.
Election Commission rejected the nomination form of Choudhary on Wednesday on the grounds that he did not attach the letter of termination from his services by government or permission certificate from EC with his nomination form.
According to the rules, no officer can contest the election after being terminated by central or state government from his/her services due to any reason. The officer didn’t permit for the same before filing his nomination.
Pankaj Choudhary’s advocate Ramvatar Singh said that Pankaj was terminated from IPS on the charges of the extramarital affair and not for corruption or disloyalty for the state. He must get the certificate from election commission to contest the elections under Section 33 of the Representation of People Act, 1951.
The court has directed the election commission officials to decide on Choudhary’s application and revert by April 16 to the court.
The dates for upcoming Lok Sabha Elections were announced by Election Commission of India. Polling in Rajasthan on 25 seats will be held on April 29 (Phase 4) and May 6 (Phase 5). The results will be announced on May 23.
