Arunachal High Court declares BJP MLA's election void for concealing information on properties

Dasanglu Pul's election as an Arunachal Pradesh BJP MLA was ruled null and invalid by the Gauhati High Court for omitting facts regarding her holdings in her election affidavit. 

In an order issued on April 25, the Itanagar bench of the Gauhati High Court ruled her election to the Hayuliang assembly seat in Anjaw district illegal under the Representation of People Act. 

Dasanglu Pul (45), the third wife of former chief minister Kalikho Pul, was re-elected to the seat in 2019 after initially winning it in a by-election in 2016 when her husband died. 

Congress candidate Lupalam Kri, who lost to Pul in 2019, had filed a petition in the court, challenging her election. Hearing the petition, the bench of Justice Nani Tagia observed that "the respondent/returned candidate had not presented her nomination paper in accordance with Section 33 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and, as such, the nomination paper of the respondent/returned candidate is liable to be rejected under Section 36 (2) (a)" of the said Act. 

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"Hence, the improper acceptance of the nomination of the respondent/returned candidate by the returning officer, therefore, has materially affected the result of the election of the respondent/returned candidate," the court said. 

Kri stated in his appeal that Pul's nomination was significantly flawed since she failed to reveal her husband's four properties in Mumbai and two in Arunachal Pradesh in her affidavit. He alleged that despite a written complaint against Pul, the returning officer unlawfully allowed her nomination. 

According to the legal heir certificate, Kalikho Pul's first wife Dangwimsai Pul is the owner of his possessions, according to the BJP MLA. As a result, she informed the court, she did not include any of those properties in her election affidavit. 

Pul later told reporters that she would be challenging the high court order in the Supreme Court.