New Delhi, April 25 (H.S.): The Delhi High Court has granted permission to the Election Commission to release the EVMs used for the elections of the Kalkaji Assembly seat in Delhi. Justice Jyoti Singh ordered the preservation of VVPAT slips during the Kalkaji Assembly elections.

The High Court issued this directive on the petition filed by the Election Commission. In fact, a petition challenging the election of Atishi from Kalkaji is pending in the High Court. In this pending petition, the Election Commission has filed a request to release the EVMs for the Bihar elections. While hearing the petition challenging Atishi's election, the High Court had issued notices to Atishi and the Election Commission on March 26, ordering the preservation of all records related to the Assembly elections. The High Court is set to hear this petition on July 30.

The petition challenging Atishi's election was filed by Kamaljeet Singh Duggal and Ayush Rana, residents of the Kalkaji Assembly constituency. The petition claims that during the Assembly elections, Atishi Marlena and her election representatives engaged in corrupt practices. It states that a close associate of Atishi Marlena was caught with a cash amount of five lakh rupees just a day before the Assembly elections, and he was allegedly bribing voters on Atishi Marlena's orders. The petition argues that such actions constitute corrupt practices under Section 123(1) of the Representation of the People Act.

Atishi had defeated BJP candidate Ramesh Bidhuri by a margin of 3,521 votes. Atishi received a total of 52,154 votes, while Bidhuri received 48,633 votes. Congress candidate Alka Lamba came in third with only 4,392 votes.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar