Kerala High Court holds sitting on Sunday, seeks response from Election Commission on plea by 2 BJP candidates against rejection of nomination

The Kerala High Court held a special sitting on Sunday to hear a plea by two BJP candidates, N Haridas and Nivedida Subramanian challenging the decision of Returning Officers to reject their nomination papers for the upcoming Kerala Assembly Elections. .A Single-judge of Justice N Nagaresh did not pass any orders but asked the Election Commission to submit its response to the plea after a hearing which lasted for nearly two hours. The hearing in the case will continue at 12 pm tomorrow. .The petition was filed by the two BJP candidates challenging the orders of returning officers rejecting their nominations.BJP Kannur District President, N Haridas is contesting from Thalassery constituency while Mahila Morcha State President, advocate Nivedida Subramanian is the candidate from Guruvayoor. .Their nominations were rejected on the ground that it did not have the signature of the party's State President which is mandatory under law. .The petitioners contended that the omission in the nomination form was not a ground to rejection the candidature and the Returning Officer should have given time to the petitioners to rectify the same. .Senior Advocate S Sreekumar appeared for Haridasan while Senior Advocate K Ramkumar represented Subramanian. .The petitioners broadly argued the following:That the defects cited by the Returning Officers are not fatal insofar as accepting their nominations are concerned. In this regard, it was also contended that the defect cited relates to the identification of election symbol and is not a ground to reject the nomination itself. That there are other Returning Officers who have granted more time to cure such defects and different yardsticks are being applied by different Returning Officers for candidates from other parties. As such, there is discrimination and double standards being shown.The pleas seek to advance and subserve the cause of elections. Therefore, it the Court is not barred from interfering in the matter under Article 329B of the Constitution. .The Election Commission, in turn, contended that the case is not maintainable given the bar on Court interference in election matters under Article 329B of the Constitution, which lays down that such cases can only be moved by way of an election petition. .State Attorney KV Sohan also appeared today. .The matter will be heard again on Monday at 12 pm. .Kerala is going to polls on April 6.