EC tells MP High Court no need to transfer Narsinghpur collector, SHOs

The Election Commission of India on Thursday told the Madhya Pradesh High Court that there was no need to transfer Narsinghpur district collector Riju Bafna and station house officers of Sua Tala and Themi police stations as there was no violation of code of conduct in connection with the November 17 Assembly polls.

Jabalpur, Oct 26 The Election Commission of India (EC) on Thursday told the Madhya Pradesh High Court that there was no need to transfer Narsinghpur district collector Riju Bafna and station house officers of Sua Tala and Themi police stations as there was no violation of code of conduct in connection with the November 17 Assembly polls.

No violation of code of conduct

The submissions came during the hearing of a plea by former Congress MLA Shekhar Choudhary who claimed the EC was not acting on his complaint seeking transfer of Narsinghpur collector and two station house officers, the poll body's counsel Siddarth Seth told PTI.

One of the grounds in the petition seeking the transfers is a letter of October 12 written by BJP sitting MLA Jalam Singh appreciating the work of the district collector and two police officers at a time when the model code of conduct is in force, he said.

Petition came up for hearing

The petition came up for hearing before a division bench of Chief Justice R Malimath and Justice Vishal Mishra.

The EC also submitted that the MP chief electoral officer took cognizance of the complaint of Choudhary on October 17 and directed the General Administration Department (GAD) principal secretary to conduct a probe into the matter, he added.

Notices were served

The GAD principal secretary instructed the Jabalpur divisional commissioner revenue to inquire into the matter, and the latter, on October 24, served notices to ex-MLA Choudhary and BJPs Jalam Singh to file their responses, the counsel said.

Choudhary and Singh both did not respond to the notices. The EC on the basis of the documents available on record arrived at the conclusion that the officers are dispensing their election duty in a free and fair manner, he added.

Counsel sought time

The petitioner's counsel Pankaj Dubey sought some time from the court to file a reply to the EC's submissions.