Supreme Court yesterday directed cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu to face trial for seeking assistance of a government servant during the 2009 general elections, while partially dropping charges of corrupt practice and submission of false return on election expenses
Navjot Singh Sidhu
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New Delhi: Supreme Court yesterday directed cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu to face trial for seeking assistance of a government servant during the 2009 general elections, while partially dropping charges of corrupt practice and submission of false return on election expenses.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A M Sapre, while allowing the appeal of Sidhu, partially dropped two categories of allegations including commission of corrupt practice of submission of false return of election expenses, and the action taken by the Returning Officer on the complaint filed by Om Prakash Soni with regard to irregularities in counting of votes. Sidhu recently resigned from his Rajya Sabha seat and BJP, from which he had won the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in 2009, defeating his Congress rival, Soni.
“Consequently and in the light of the above, the appeal is partly allowed to the extent indicated above. The trial of the election petition on the issues/allegations that survive in terms of the present order will have to recommence. We order accordingly,” the bench said.
The court said the allegation that Sidhu had got Jagjit Singh Suchu, an officer of Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) transferred as Additional Superintending Engineer, Amritsar, to receive assistance from him so as to further his election prospects, needs to go for full trial.
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