The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Law Minister Somnath Bharti for allegedly exceeding their poll expense limit.
Earlier on January 21, two leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- Vijendra Gupta and Aarti Mehra-had filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against Kejriwal and Bharti, and appealed to the court to quash their elections.
Senior advocate and BJP's legal cell in-charge Satya Pal Jain said that is a simple case of exceeding the proposed poll expenditure, which is an offense.
"The High Court today issued notice to Arvind Kejriwal and Somnath Bharti on an election petition filed by Vijendra Gupta and Aarti Mehra. The main allegation in the election petition is that as per Section 123, a candidate cannot spend more than Rs 14 lakhs on his election campaign," he said.
"In the present case, Arvind Kejriwal, Somnath Bharti and one more candidate, organized a public meeting on November 23, and as per the report submitted by a team of the Election Commission, a total of about Rs.39 lakhs was spent. The EC on December 3 passed an order, saying that since three candidates were present on the dais, this Rs. 39 lakhs would be divided among the three candidates," he added.
Jain said that Kejriwal had submitted records stating that he has spent 4 lakhs. But his actual poll expenditure would be Rs. 17 lakhs after dividing the money spent in organizing that event between the three people.
He further said that the correct amount was not disclosed by them, and added that as per law, they should be disqualified for six years from contesting any elections
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"This is a simple case of exceeding the amount not prescribed by law, and secondly they have not shown this amount at all in their election result. They have not maintained the correct account. We hope that their election is set aside, and as per law, they should be disqualified for six years from contesting any elections," he added.
AAP had organized a concert on November 23 last year at the Jantar Mantar, which saw a number of artists participate, including Vishal Dadlani and Rabbi Shergil, and was attended by over 1200 people.
However, AAP leaders have maintained that the concert did not cost Rs. 22 lakhs, and the artists performed free of cost.