New Delhi : In a relief to Union Minister Smriti Irani, a trial court here on Tuesday dismissed a plea to issue summon against her for allegedly giving false information about her educational qualifications in her affidavit to the Election Commission of India.
The complaint was filed to harass the Minister, the Patiala House district court said. Metropolitan Magistrate Harvinder Singh said prayer for seeking summon against Irani “is dismissed”, and observed that the complaint has been filed after delay of 11 years and because the original elections affidavit of 2004 is not available. The court was hearing a private complaint filed by Ahmer Khan, who accused Irani of submitting varying details about her educational qualifications in her three affidavits filed before the Election Commission for the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections held in 2004, 2011 and 2014.
In the last hearing, the Election Commission official submitted a certificate regarding authentication of the election affidavits filed by Irani in the 2004 Election.The Election Commission had earlier submitted documents that were a copy of the file extracted from its official website.At that time, the commission told the court that Irani’s original 2004 election affidavit was misplaced, the complainant’s counsel told the media.
