Delhi HC imposes Rs 5,000 cost on BJP leader

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday imposed Rs 5,000 cost on BJP leader Karan Singh Tanwar for his failure to file response on an election petition filed by him against AAP legislator Surender Singh alleging that he furnished false information about his educational qualifications in a poll affidavit.

Joint Registrar Ashutosh Kumar imposed the cost on Tanwar, who is the vice-chairman of New Delhi Municipal Council, and asked him to file reply by December 4.

The court on October 19 had earlier imposed Rs 50,000 cost on Surender Singh after he failed to file his reply on time and also asked Tanwar to also file response.

Surender Singh, the Delhi Cantonment legislator from the Aam Aadmi Party, had denied the allegations and had told the court that the allegation was "frivolous, vague and misconceived".

Tanwar, in his petition, said Surender Singh "misrepresented himself to be BA in 2012 from Sikkim University... which amounts to corrupt practice within the meaning of the Representation of the People Act".

He had said a Right to Information (RTI) reply from Sikkim University said it did not have any record of a student named Surender Singh, and sought the court's directions to declare Surender Singh's election "void".

Surender Singh had, however, said that he completed his graduation from the Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management (EIILM) University in Sikkim, but due to an inadvertent typographical mistake, the name of the university was shown incorrectly.