Delhi high court will rule on JD presidential poll on Tuesday

The Delhi high court will deliver the much-awaited judgment on the Janata Dal presidential election on Tuesday, June 17. Three petitions have been filed seeking the squashing of the June 7 order of the single-bench vacation judge of the court.

The order will be pronounced by a two-judge division bench consisting of Justice Anil Dev Singh and Justice Cyriac Joseph. After hearing the arguments of the counsel of the three parties -- Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav, JD's national returning officer P K Samantaray and Assistant Returning Officer B K Prasad and Dal MP M A A Fatmi on June 11, the bench had reserved its verdict for an unspecified date.

On June 12, the Election Commission had submitted it would have no objections if a new date was fixed by the court for holding the polls and was ready to make the required amendments.

Laloo Yadav, Samantaray, Prasad and Fatmi had filed cases: They demanded the setting aside of the order of Justice S N Kapoor fixing June 18 as the new date for the party presidential elections. The appointment of Justice Kochar as the supervisor over Samantaray for conducting the polls, to allow the JD president to hold the national executive and remove B K Prasad from his post.

Justice Kapoor, while extending the polling date by seven days, had asked the Election Commission to make necessary amendments to its order of June 15 as the last day of completion of the organisational polls of various political parties. The judgment had marked Prasad's exit from the scene.

The judge had ruled that polling would be held at various state capitals and instructed the officials to supply the voters's lists to all state and district headquarters. The court also stated that a voter's list be put up at the JD national headquarters at 7, Jantar Mantar.

The court had also restricted Laloo Yadav and Sharad Yadav from interfering in the election process, in any manner by directing Laloo Yadav not to issue any order regarding Samantaray's expulsion till the election was over and a new national executive convened.

Laloo Yadav's counsel had contended that a political party should be allowed to continue with its political process and the jurisdiction of the civil courts was 'barred' on the issue. He said that no interim injunction should be granted against Laloo Yadav from holding the national executive or polling at any place, any time.

However, the bench remarked, ''To say that the courts had no jurisdiction at all over a political party was taking the argument to the extreme.'' The court stated it could not make a distinction between an association and a political party. It was unacceptable for a political party not to come under the domain of the courts at all.

The bench, on June 15, had restrained retired Rajasthan high court Judge Kochar from conducting the JD presidential election, slated for June 18 till further orders. This had thrown the poll schedule out of gear. The bench heard Laloo Yadav's petition for a stay on the poll process.