Maharastra's chief electoral officer released from jail

Mumbai, Mar 28 : The Chief Electoral Officer of Maharastra, Nandlal was today released from Arthur Road jail after he was pardoned by the State Assembly Privileges Committee from contempt of the House charges.

The state legislative assembly sent Nandlal to two-day imprisonment for contempt of the House. He was picked up by the police from his office in south Mumbai and taken to the Arthur Road Jail on Thursday.

The Assembly unanimously approved the report of the Privileges Committee, headed by Chandrakant Chhajed (Congress), which was set up in 2006. The panel warned Nandlal of "even more stringent action" if he failed to cooperate with the committee in future.

Nandlal had accused Maharastra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh of being the prime mover behind the privilege motion against him.

"The motion was brought against me because I did not succumb to the pressure exerted on me to retain the Latur Lok Sabha constituency as a general seat after the delimitation commission proposed that it be reserved for the Scheduled Castes", claimed Nandlal.

Deshmukh hails from Latur.

Nandal had issued an order on March 7, 2006, that only the State Election Commission had the powers to conduct elections of office bearers of civic bodies such as mayors, deputy mayors and chairmen.

This had prompted a legislator, Janardan Chandurkar, to table a breach of privilege notice against Nandlal on March 27, 2006. His contention was that Nandlal's order was in contravention of the election law made by the legislature. The House had referred the matter to the privilege committee.

ANI