Delhi court issues summons to MCD councillor

New Delhi, June 15 (IANS) A court here has issued summons to a councillor from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) Jaitpur ward in South Delhi's Badarpur area, on a plea alleging that the councillor was an ineligible candidate in the civic agency's polls.

Additional District Judge Inderjeet Singh, in a recently passed order, issued summons to councillor Sikha Shah, the Delhi election commissioner and the returning officer of her constituency, asking them to appear before him July 12 on a complaint filed by a social activist and voter of Jaitpur ward, Jagvir Singh.

Singh has alleged that Shah is an ineligible candidate as she is an elector for more than one constituency. He cited this with a Right to Information (RTI) report saying that she holds a voter card of Bihar.

"Therefore, the respondent No.1 (Shah) being the elector for more than one constituency, has become an ineligible candidate and her nomination paper should have been cancelled at the outset while filing the nomination paper for the post of councillor of Municipal Corporation of Delhi," said the petitioner in his application moved by advocate Murari Kumar.

He also raised questions over Shah's age, saying that she had mentioned her age as 35 years in the MCD polls while other documents say that she is 44 years old.

He added that the voter identity card from Bharpurwa Prakhand, Vijaypur, Bhore Assembly in Bihar shows her age as 44 years.

The Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) Shah had won the MCD election held April 15 this year.

The petition seeks directions for declaration as null and void the election and counting and declaration of results pertaining to Jaitpur ward.