National
Bharatpur vote counting fracas: Hearing deferred till Sunday
The Supreme Court on Monday deferred the hearing on the case filed against the Election Commission’s decision to hold re-election in Ward 19 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, till Sunday.The Supreme Court on Monday deferred the hearing on the case filed against the Election Commission’s decision to hold re-election in Ward 19 of Bharatpur Metropolitan City, till Sunday.
The apex court on July 10 had postponed the hearing on the case for today.
A joint bench of Justices Om Prakas Mishra and Purushottam Bhandari postponed the hearing citing time limitation.
As the court’s final order is yet to come, confusion surrounds whether to continue the vote counting in the metropolis or to go for fresh election.
Counting of votes of the first phase of local level elections in Bharatpur Metropolis Ward-19 was halted after 90 ballots were torn allegedly by the CPN (Maoist Centre) representatives on the night of May 28.
The EC had, on June 3, decided to conduct re-election in the ward.
A writ petition was filed at the apex court by Gunja Man BK, a ward member candidate for Bharatpur-19, and Tulsiram Pandey, an advocate, against the EC decision to conduct re-election, responding to which the SC had stayed the EC decision on June 5.