Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 6: Court has refused to restrain Romesh Chander Gupta from contesting election to the post of President Central Mahajan Sabha, which is scheduled to be held tomorrow.
Sub Judge, special Railway Magistrate, Jammu, Parvaiz Iqbal dismissed the application seeking temporary injunction on election process , with the observation that the petition in this regard was devoid of any merit and hence disposed of.
The application was jointly filed by Jugal Mahajan, Ram Langar and Sham Langar, who along with defendant Romesh Chander Gupta are in fray for the post of President Central Mahajan Sabha.
The plaintiffs, through their counsel, had stated that clause 13(6) of the Constitution of Jammu Central Mahajan Sabha explicitly provides that a candidate for the post of President shouldn’t have served as President for the last two consecutive terms i.e. for four years. Defendant Romesh Chander Gupta has served the Sabha as its President with effect from 2004 to 2006 and then 2006 to 2011 and thereafter in the year 2016, he was unanimously declared as President of the Sabha and continued to be President for the next tenure of two years also.
In response, defendant Romesh Chander Gupta explained that he was elected as President in 2016 but before he could take over the charge, the declaration of his election as President was kept in abeyance by the court. It was only after this order was set aside by Additional District Judge Jammu, he took over the charge of President from March 19, 2017.
After hearing both side, court observed that the period during which the tenure of president was kept in abeyance, cannot be included in two years and hence four years term of defendant completed on July 11, 2020. The fresh elections were notified in February 2020 with March 7, 2020 as last date of filing nominations, eligibility of the candidate was assessed on March 8, 2020 and on that day the defendant had not completed four years term while delay on account of COVID-19 in holding election cannot be attributed to the defendant, said the court.
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