Another petition against Pratibha's nomination

New Delhi, July 11: The Supreme Court today declined to give anearly date of hearing on a petition requesting cancellation of thenomination of UPA Presidential nominee Pratibha Patil.

The bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Mr JusticeR V Raveendran told the petitioner Manohar Lal Sharma, an advocate,that there was no urgency in the matter and it could come up in thenormal course of hearing.

The apex court had earlier dismissed a similar petition filed bySharma but had given him liberty to approach the appropriate authorityfor redressal of his grievance.

Subsequently, he approached the Election Commission with thecomplaint against Mrs Patil but the same was dismissed by the EC onJuly 5 2007.

The petitioner had filed an appeal against the order of ElectionCommission. According to the petitioner, Mrs Patil is facing severalcharges of ommission and commission such as one relating to a sugarmill, of which she was the chairperson and is being presently run byher family members.

The mill defaulted in the repayment of loan of Rs 17.5 crores andthe cooperative bank has initiated proceedings for recovery of the duesthrough auction sale of the mill.

According to the petition, Mrs Patil is also facing allegation ofgiving unsecure loan to her relatives from the bank, run by her underthe name Pratibha Cooperative Bank, which was later closed down by RBI.The loans are yet to be recovered.

The petitioner has also contended that more than 150 MLAs and MPshave taken loans of millions of rupees from cooperative banks andnationalized banks and have not returned theme, causing heavy losses tothe state exchequer.

Ms Patil is also facing allegation of shielding her brother, whois facing murder charges. Her husband, Devi Singh Shekhawat, is facingallegation of harassing his employee, who later committed suicide.

Sharma is going to mention the matter again next week. Polling for Presidential election is going to take place on July 19.

UNI

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