The Delhi High
Court stayed the summons issued by a city court against Sunita Kejriwal, wife
of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in connection with a case alleging she
holds two voter ID cards.
“Issue notice. In
the meanwhile, there shall be a stay on the impugned order till the next date
of hearing,” a bench of justice Amit Bansal said on a petition by Sunita
Kejriwal against a Tis Hazari court order. The high court will next take up the
matter on February 1, 2024.
The summons were
issued against her on August 29 on a complaint by Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) secretary Harish Khurana who alleged that Sunita Kejriwal violated the
Representation of the People Act since she was enrolled as a voter of two
constituencies — Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh and Chandini Chowk in Delhi.
Metropolitan
magistrate Arjinder Kaur at the Tis Hazari courts issued the summons on August
29, taking cognizance that “this court is of the considered opinion that a
prima facie case is made out against accused person namely, Sunita Kejriwal wife
of Arvind Kejriwal for the alleged commission of the offences punishable under
section 31 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950. Hence, the accused be
summoned accordingly”.
The magistrate’s
order cited Supreme Court judgments to emphasise that there was no compulsion for
the court to present explicit reasons in the order to summon the accused and
that the magistrate was only required to focus on the prima facie allegations
while passing the order.
Sunita Kejriwal
approached the high court against the metropolitan magistrate’s decision that
required her appearance on November 18, arguing that the court took the
decision without application of mind.
Kejriwal,
appearing through senior advocate Rebecca John, submitted before the court that
an offence under the Representation of Peoples Act was made out only in case of
a person submitting a false affidavit and Khurana’s complaint did not place any
material to establish that she made a false declaration.
Agencies
