New Delhi: Former Jharkhand Chief Minister
Madhu Koda on Thursday approached the Delhi High Court against the
Election Commission`s show-cause notice threatening him with
disqualification for allegedly not filing detailed accounts
about his poll expenses during the 2009 general elections.
Koda, the MP from Singhbhum, sought quashing of the
EC`s notice and a stay on the Commission`s proceedings against
him.
Filing a petition before a division bench of Chief
Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the independent
MP, said, "EC has no power to conduct a roving enquiry."
The bench fixed the matter for July 14.
Koda, who has been in jail since his arrest in
November 2009 for allegedly laundering Rs 4,000 crore as the
chief minister of Jharkhand during the period 2006-2008, said
that the Commission has issued notice to him on the basis of
IT returns filed by him in 2009.
"The Election Commission has also no power to look
into the incorrectness or falsity of the returns of election
expenses and the same can be looked into only by the High
Court in an election petition," he contended
"Removal of an elected member can be done by the High
Court only and not by the election commission," he said.
According to the petition, Koda was elected as
independent MP in 2009 and in October 2010 the Election
Commission had issued notice to him asking him as to why he
should not be disqualified on the ground that he had shown the
election expenses much less than the actual amount of Rs
18,92,353.
As many as four government agencies the Enforcement
Directorate (ED), Department of Income Tax (IT), Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Jharkhand Vigilance
Department have been probing the graft and money laundering
charges against him.
PTI
