Bhupendra Khant moves Gujarat HC against disqualification

AHMEDABAD: The former independent MLA from Morva Hadaf constituency in Panchamahal district, Bhupendra Khant, has moved the Gujarat high court challenging the speaker’s decision to disqualify him, for submitting an allegedly invalid caste certificate to contest the 2017 assembly polls from a seat reserved for a scheduled tribe (ST) member.
Acting on the plea, the HC division bench comprising justices R M Chhaya and B N Karia issued notices to the respondent authorities and posted a hearing for July 15.
Assembly speaker Rajendra Trivedi had on May 3 announced Khant’s disqualification, saying that the decision was taken according to directions from the governor, O P Kohli.
Khant, who was earlier in the Congress, had contested as an independent after the party refused him a ticket, and won. He is the son of senior Congress leader Vechat Khant, who recently contested the Panchmahal Lok Sabha seat.
Soon after Bhupendra Khant’s victory in 2017, his opponents filed a petition in the Gujarat high court, alleging that the document certifying him as a member of an ST community, was invalid. He lost the case after the tribal development department held that his certificate was not valid.
After the Election Commission of India (ECI) accepted that Khant had forged documents after his opponents moved the Gujarat high court, the ECI told the governor of Gujarat to process his disqualification.
The governor wrote to the speaker and the speaker notified Khant’s disqualification.