By Our Correspondent
CUTTACK/BHUBANESWAR: In a major relief, Odisha Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal has set aside the petition seeking disqualification of Barabati-Cuttack Congress MLA Mohammad Moquim from the State Assembly.
The Governor’s decision came through Odisha Gazette Extraordinary notification no. 684 dated April 26, 2021 with regard to the election disqualification case no. 1 of 2021.Four petitioners of Cuttack, Sarada Prasad Tripathy, Jagatjyoti Patnaik, Sashibhusan Das and Biswanath Dash, had together filed an application before the Governor under Article 192 of the Constitution seeking disqualification of Moquim. They alleged that Moquim had submitted wrong election affidavits before the Returning Officer during the 2019 elections intentionally to mislead the public.
The Governor had forwarded the case to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for judgement and ECI dismissed petition. On the basis of ECI’s verdict, the Governor ordered that there is no ground for disqualification and Moquim shall continue to enjoy his position as an MLA.
