Bhopal: In a major relief to Madhya Pradesh's Public Relations minister Narottam Mishra, the Delhi High Court on Friday reversed a judgement against him by the Election Commission, which had disqualified him for three years over allegations of paid news.
The Delhi verdict essentially means that the minister can now continue to be part of the Shivraj Chauhan cabinet, something which the Congress had vehemently been opposing since the EC's judgement against him.
Bolstered by the verdict, Mishra told media that elements who rake up such misleading and false allegations should be identified or else elected candidates would continue to be targeted with such baseless complaints, mostly culled from newspaper cuttings, soon after elections.
Hailing the HC verdict, the senior MP minister sought a detailed interpretation of the concept of paid news at whatever platform possible.
Reacting to the HC judgement, BJP spokesperson Deepak Vijayvargiya accused the Congress of indulging in politics of baseless and false allegations. This was the reason why the Congress party is fast losing out its base today, he added.
The Congress, however, has not accepted the judgement.
“We have heard about the HC verdict but the option to approach the Supreme Court is still open and we are confident we would win in the apex court,” Congress spokesperson Manak Agrawal said.
The EC had on Saturday disqualified Mishra for three years for allegedly filing inaccurate accounts of election expenditure.
The minister was accused of getting paid news published in his favour but not showing said expenditure in his details of expenses filed with the EC.
Former Datia Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti had in 2009 complained to the EC against Mishra, accusing him of getting paid news published in his favour during the assembly polls campaign in 2008.
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