The Allahabad High Court has turned down a petition of Umlesh Yadav, wife of liquor baron and strongman D P Yadav, challenging her disqualification by the Election Commission for a period of three years on account of her failure to make correct disclosure of poll expenses.
A division bench, comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and Bharati Sapru, passed the order on May 3 observing that "none of the submissions of the learned counsel for the petitioner has any substance."
Umlesh had got elected from Bisauli Assembly constituency in the 2007 UP Assembly elections wherein she had fought as a candidate of Rashtriya Parivartan Dal, a fledgling outfit floated by her husband.
A complaint was made to the Press Council of India on April 27, 2007 that a day before polling for the constituency, "one-sided news items" were published in two Hindi dailies for which a huge sum was paid by Umlesh to the dailies even though campaigning had come to an end.
The PCI, in its order dated March 31, 2010, held that the matter published in the newspapers "in reality was an advertisement" even though it was "camouflaged as a news item" and forwarded the adjudication to the EC for necessary action.
The EC, after investigating the matter, invoked the relevant section of the Representation of People Act and disqualified Umlesh for a period of three years vide order dated October 20, 2011.
Incidentally, D P Yadav is a former MLA who has been associated with different political parties while the couple's son Vikas Yadav is the prime accused in the Nitish Katara murder case.
