On Monday, Somnath Bharti of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) remained tight-lipped on the matter concerning Delhi High Court comments with relevance to his appeal about the election of BJP leader Bansuri Swaraj defeating him in the New Delhi Lok Sabha seat. The issue was that Bharti held back his retort and cited that he had gone through ‘Hardships’ and that anyone who wanted to get a statement from him had to refer to his lawyer.
Bharti took to social media, stating, “For friends in media calling for my comment on today’s hearing on my election petition: My challenge is that I can not speak of the observations made by court outside the court or inside the court fora Usually, I am represented by a Senior Counsel, Sri KC Mittal who specializes in election laws I have not seen the order.
Somnath Bharti’s Legal Battle
The essence of the legal battle was that the defendant, Swaraj, resorted to ‘corrupt practices’ during her maiden electoral campaign against the plaintiff, Bharti. Bharti, awarded AAP-Congress joint candidate, could not secure the victory even though he came closer to the winner with a difference of 80,000 votes only. He filed the appeal on 20th July, and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora entertained the same. The court also observed that Bharti was incompetent in his petition, which contained typing mistakes; therefore, the court directed his lawyer to provide the correct document. The judge did not give notice then but told the counsel to correct the plea within 10 days of being given a new notice. The matter was then stood down to August 14.
Swaraj, a lawyer and the child of BJP lost soul Sushma Swaraj, opposed Bharti, saying the latter was in denial of his electoral loss. She said, “He has lost the Lok Sabha election and cannot take this defeat now. He will lie and spread all kinds of false information about AAP and me.”
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