Manipur High Court Rules Election Of ‘Congress MLA’ Okram Henry ‘Void’

The High Court of Manipur has declared the election of BJP leader Okram Henry Singh, a member of the state assembly, as null and void for submitting an incomplete affidavit during the submission of the nomination paper before the poll in 2017.

The judgement was given by Justice MV Muralidaran while hearing an petition filed by Yumkham Erabot Singh, the second-placed BJP candidate.

Henry had won from Wangkhei in 2017 on a Congress ticket by a margin of 4,336 votes defeating Erabot of the BJP. He switched to the saffron party in 2020. He was made minister of the social welfare department. However, Erabot did not withdraw his petition against Henry.

Singh had cited in the petition that Henry filed his highest educational qualification as BA from Punjab University in his nomination and filed "Class XII from Manipur Public School, CBSE" as the highest educational qualification in his nomination in 2017 election. Singh said Henry had not disclosed a criminal case and a narcotics case against him to the Election Commission.

While disqualifying Henry as MLA, Justice M V Muralidaran also declared Erabot as MLA of Wangkhei.

In the verdict, the court said that Henry was supposed to provide in the affidavit details of the name of his spouse and dependents, and those of his pending criminal cases and educational qualification.

"... but for reasons best known to him, (he) failed to disclose the said information. Non-disclosure of the material information of the Respondent No. 1 (Henry) amounts to a violation of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 and rules thereof, and hence his election is fit to be declared as null and void," it said.