Post News Network
Cuttack, Dec 16: The Orissa High Court Monday issued notices to the Union Home Secretary, Election Commission of India and district collectors of Kandhamal and Nayagarh on the issue of election of Kandhamal MP Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh.
The High Court asked the officials to file replies within four weeks on the matter. The court’s directive came in the wake of a petition filed by Dr Subhash Mohapatra.
According to the petition, Singh’s election as MP from Kandhamal parliamentary constituency in the byelection was challenged as she is a citizen of Nepal. Mohapatra, in his petition alleged Singh was not a citizen of India and therefore is not eligible to be a member of Parliament and sought her disqualification. He further alleged that Pratyusha who has claimed her marriage with Hemendra Singh (the then MP of Kandhamal), has not been able to obtain a certificate of Indian citizenship as per the law of the land.
“Her (Pratyusha) alleged enrolment in the electoral roll in Nayagarh district cannot be sufficient ground to establish her citizenship,” the petition states.
Mohapatra has demanded quashing the election of Pratyusha.
Earlier, state BJP leader Rudra Madhab Ray had stated that Pratyusha was not qualified to become a member of Parliament as she continues to be a citizen of Nepal and has not accepted Indian citizenship. Ray, a former BJD MP, who had joined the saffron party October 15, had lost to the BJD leader and the widow of former MP Hemendra Singh by a margin of three lakh votes.
Days after Pratyusha was sworn-in as a Member of Parliament, Ray approached the High Court invoking Article 102 of Indian Constitution stating that the BJD leader’s membership automatically gets disqualified as per the provisions in the article.