HC stays EC order on Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha

New Delhi, Feb 9 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has stayedan order of the Election Commission that it will not recogniseanyone as authorised office bearers of Akhil Bharat HinduMahasabha.

The order by Justice S Muralidhar came on a petitionfiled by Swami Chakrapani, who had challenged the order of theElection Commission not to recognise any office bearer of theABHM following rival groups claiming themselves to beauthorised office bearers.

"Prima facie it appears to this court that the meremaking of representations by any one faction of a registeredpolitical party cannot form the basis of a decision by theElection Commission not to recognise any office bearer ofABHM," the court said in its order on Friday last.

The Commission in an RTI reply in November last year,had said that Chakrapani is the National President of theABHM.

Following the RTI reply, rival fractions approachedthe Commission claiming themselves to be authorised officebearers of the party.

The EC was approached by Viresh Kumar Tyagi, Indra PalSingh, Kamlesh Tiwari, Baba Pandit, Nand Kishore Mishra andSantosh Rai, who questioned the election of Chakrapani.

Subsequently, on January 14, the Commission issued anorder saying that until the internal disputes are settledwithin the party, it will not entertain any communication fromany groups and will not recognise anyone as the authorisedoffice bearers of the party.