Calcutta High Court dismisses Congress plea challenging BJP candidate Hashirani Rath’s election affidavit over an alleged discrepancy in her birth and Madhyamik details.
Calcutta High Court Court rejects Congress challenge over alleged discrepancy in Hashirani Rath’s educational and birth details, noting the objection was raised after the scrutiny process had concluded.
Qalam Times News Network
Kolkata | September 29, 2026
Calcutta High Court has dismissed a petition filed by the Congress challenging the election affidavit submitted by BJP candidate Hashirani Rath in connection with the Nandigram by-election. The petition alleged that the affidavit contained inconsistencies in her personal and educational details.
The Calcutta High Court heard the matter before Justice Krishna Rao. The Congress had questioned the information provided by Rath in her affidavit submitted to the Election Commission, particularly the discrepancy between her stated year of birth and the year in which she was said to have passed the Madhyamik examination.
According to the petition, Rath’s affidavit stated that she was born in 1966, while her educational details reportedly mentioned that she had passed the Madhyamik examination in 1965. The Congress argued that the apparent discrepancy raised questions about the accuracy of the information contained in the affidavit and sought cancellation of her nomination on that ground.
The Congress had approached the court seeking judicial intervention over the alleged inconsistency and questioned whether a candidate could legitimately submit an affidavit containing such conflicting information.
During the hearing, however, the Election Commission’s counsel raised a preliminary objection regarding the maintainability of the petition. The Commission argued that the petitioner did not have the legal standing to raise the objection at this stage.
The Commission further submitted that the scrutiny of nominations for the by-election had already been completed on September 17. According to the Commission’s position, objections relating to the validity of a nomination should have been raised during the prescribed scrutiny process. Since the scrutiny had already concluded, the petitioner could not seek to reopen the issue through the present proceedings, the Commission argued.
The court had reserved its order after the arguments of all parties were completed on September 25. Justice Krishna Rao subsequently pronounced the order, rejecting the petition filed by the Congress.
The dismissal means that the challenge brought before the High Court over the alleged discrepancy in Hashirani Rath’s affidavit has not resulted in the cancellation of her nomination.
The case centred primarily on the timing and legal maintainability of the objection, with the Election Commission maintaining that the nomination scrutiny process had already been completed and that the petitioner could not raise the issue at this subsequent stage.
Calcutta High Court, Hashirani Rath, Nandigram By-election, BJP, Congress, Election Commission, Election Affidavit, Justice Krishna Rao, West Bengal Politics, Nandigram
