Returning Officer's rejection of nomination papers of TMC candidate Ujjwal Kumar based on "hyper technical" defects: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court on Thursday set aside aside the Returning Officer's order rejecting the nomination papers of Trinamool Congress candidate Ujjwal Kumar from the Joypur constituency (Ujjwal Kumar v. Chief Election Commissioner & Ors)..Following the rejection of his nomination by the Returning Officer on March 10, Kumar had approached the Calcutta High Court. .The challenge to the rejection was heard today by Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, who set aside the order..Justice Bhattacharyya recorded that the defects in the nomination papers as pointed out by the Returning Officer are hyper-technical and cannot be treated as being of substantial character. Therefore, rejection of Kumar's nomination due to such defects is not tenable, the Court noted..The returning officer while scrutinizing the nomination form stated that the relevant column regarding a declaration as to the address of the petitioner’s Government accommodation and as to whether any dues were payable in respect thereof, was not filled up. .Justice Banerjee called this objection "hyper technical " in nature. .However, since the petitioner does not have a Government accommodation and the said clause is not applicable at all to the petitioner, non-fulfillment of such condition is hyper-technical in nature and cannot be treated as a substantial defect.Said Calcutta High Court.While doing so, the High Court has permitted Ujjwal Kumar to contest the election based on the nomination papers submitted by him. It further declared that the nomination papers as submitted by Kumar were valid and in accordance with law.."The “defects” pointed out by the concerned Returning Officer were not defects in the true sense of the term in so far as the columns which were not filled up by the petitioner were not applicable to the petitioner at all in view of the petitioner having disclosed that the petitioner does not have any Government accommodation and the name of the third dependent being merely academic in view of there being no first and second defendant of the petitioner," reads the order. .Elections to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases from March 27, with the final round of voting taking place on April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal argued for Kumar. The other lawyers appearing in the case were Advocates Kunal Vajani, Debanjan Mandal, Sanjay Basu, Jishnu Chowdhury, Sandip Dasgupta, Sahrav Bhagat, Aryan De, Deepan Sarkar and Amit Nag. .(Read order)