The High Court of Himachal Pradesh issued a notice to Kangana Ranaut, the BJP Lok Sabha member from Mandi, in response to a petition filed by a resident of Kinnaur.
The resident is seeking to annul her election based on the claim that his nomination papers for contesting the Lok Sabha constituency were unfairly rejected. Justice Jyotsna Rewal, who issued the notice, directed Ranaut to respond by August 21.
Ranaut secured victory in the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, surpassing her Congress opponent Vikramaditya Singh by 74,755 votes. She received 5,37,002 votes, while Singh garnered 4,62,267 votes.
Layak Ram Negi, the petitioner who is urging to nullify Ranaut's election, argues that his nomination papers were unjustly rejected by the returning officer, who also made him a party to the case.
Negi, a former employee of the forest department, mentioned that he took early retirement and presented a "no dues certificate" from the department along with his nomination papers to the returning officer.
Afterwards, he was given one day to obtain a "no due certificate" from the electricity, water, and telephone departments. When he submitted these certificates, the returning officer refused to accept them and rejected his nomination papers.
He argued that he could have won the election if his papers had been accepted and requested that the election be invalidated.
