Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has rejected the petition filed against the election of Balasore MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi.
The petition was filed by Jadunath Sethi who had contested as an Independent candidate from Balasore Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 election. After Sarangi was declared elected, Sethi challenged his election in the High Court.
Sethi, in his petition, stated that Sarangi had produced false information regarding his properties, cases against him and other matters in the affidavit filed by him before the election. Sethi sought the court’s intervention to declare the election of Sarangi as null and void.
A division bench of the High Court comprising Justice Debabrata Dash heard the petition on Monday. But no advocate or any legal representative of Sethi was present in the court at the time of the hearing. In earlier hearing of the petition on April 13 and 14 also, nobody from the side of Sethi was present.
Since the petitioner or his advocate was not present during the three hearings, the bench quashed the petition.
