Supreme Court dismisses election petition challenging the 2021 Assam Assembly Election of AIUDF Leader Karim Uddin Barbhuiya

On April 08, 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) of India dismissed the election petition filed by the former BJP leader Aminul Haque Laskar (currently a member of the Congress party) challenging the 2021 Assam Assembly Election victory of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) leader and Assam MLA Karim Uddin Barbhuiya from the Sonia Legislative Assembly Constituency. The judgment was delivered on April 08, 2024, under the title Karim Uddin Barbhuiya vs. Aminul Haque Laskar. The bench observed that Aminul Haque Laskar made ‘vague allegations’ without any basis to constitute ‘material facts’ to institute the election petition. The bench constituting Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Bela M. Trivedi remarked, “Mere bald and vague allegations without any basis would not be sufficient compliance of the requirement of making a concise statement of the “material facts” in the Election Petition. The material facts which are primary and basic facts have to be pleaded in support of the case set up by the Election petitioner to show his cause of action. Any omission of a single material fact would lead to an incomplete cause of action entitling the returned candidate to pray for dismissal of Election petition under Order VII Rule 11(a) of CPC read with Section 83(1)(a) of the RP Act.” 

In this case, the appellant (Karim Uddin Barbhuiya) won the Assam Legislative Assembly Elections held in 2021 from the Sonia Legislative Assembly Constituency defeating Aminul Haque Laskar. Further, Laskar filed the Election Petition before the Gauhati High Court under Section 100(1)(b) and Section 100(1)(d)(i) of the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951 questioning the election of Barbhuiya. He alleged that Barbhuiya adopted corrupt practices while filing a nomination to contest the Assembly Elections from the Sonai Constituency. On the other hand, Barbhuiya filed an application under Order VII Rule 11, CPC read with Section 86 of the RP Act for rejection of the Election Petition. The HC passed the impugned judgment dismissing the said I.A. filed by the appellant. The matter was therefore mentioned before the top court. 

The SC bench pointed out, “Right to contest election or to question the election by means of an Election Petition is neither common law nor fundamental right.” After hearing the arguments, the SC said, “If the allegations contained in Election Petition do not set out grounds as contemplated in Section 100 and do not conform to the requirement of Section 81 and 83 of the Act, the Election Petition is liable to be rejected under Order VII, Rule 11 of CPC.” It further added, “an omission of a single material fact leading to an incomplete cause of action or omission to contain a concise statement of material facts on which the Election petitioner relies for establishing a cause of action, would entail rejection of Election Petition under Order VII Rule 11 read with Section 83 and 87 of the RP Act.” Therefore, the top court dismissed the election petition filed by Aminul Haque Laskar and granted relief to AIUDF and Assam leader Karim Uddin Barbhuiya.