Court setback for MLA Noorul Hassan

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, May 8 : The Supreme Court has  dismissed an appeal filed by Kshetrigao AC MLA Sheikh Noorul Hassan against the High Court of Manipur granting the former MLA of the AC Nahakpam Indrajit permission to file a replication in an election petition on March 14, 2023.
A three bench Judge of the Court led by led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manjo Misra observed that they found no merit in the appeal.
The civil appeal was filed by Kshetrigao MLA Sheikh Noorul Hassan against Nahakpam Indrajit and others against the order passed by the High Court of Manipur on March 14 last year wherein a leave was granted to the election petitioner Nahakpam Indrajit to file a replication in reply to the new facts mentioned in the written statement filed by Sheikh Noorul Hassan.
The brief fact of the case is that Nahakpam Indrajit filed an election petition seeking a declaration of the election of Sheikh Noorul Hassan from Kshetrigao AC as null and void under different sections of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 and to declare  him as the winner of the election.
In the election petition filed before the High Court of Manipur, it was alleged, inter alia, that Sheikh Noorul Hassan had failed to make necessary disclosures in the nomination paper/affidavit (i.e., Form 26) which had a material bearing on the election result.
In support of that allegation, particulars of such non-disclosure/incorrect disclosure were detailed in the election petition.
These allegations, however, were not only denied in the written statement filed by Sheikh Noorul Hassan but additional facts were also laid out therein.
As a result, the election petitioner Nahakpam Indrajit filed an application seeking leave to file a replication, which came to be allowed by the impugned order of the High Court of Manipur dated March 14, last year.
The High Court allowed the application seeking leave to file a replication.
The Supreme Court after hearing the submission of petitioner and respondent counsel at length and on perusal of the Manipur High Court order dated March 14, 2023 observed that in the election petition the replication does not seek to incorporate any new material facts or a new cause of action to question the election.
It only seeks to explain the averments made in the written statement. Thus, in their view, leave to file replication was justified and well within the discretionary jurisdiction of the High Court.
The three bench Judges ruled they found no merit in the civil appeal and dismissed the same today.