The Supreme Court has issued an interim order in the writ petition filed by Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor Balen Shah against the Election Commission’s decision to fine him for failing to submit details of election expenses on time.
Hearing the petition filed by Shah on January 3, the constitutional court of the high court on Wednesday issued a notice of show cause to the Election Commission.
According to Shah’s legal adviser, Om Prakash Aryal, Shah had registered the petition with the constitutional court with two lawsuits.
“He [Shah] he had demanded that he not be fined for submitting the details of election expenses, which must be submitted within 30 days, on the 31st, as the 30th was a holiday,” Aryal said. “Their other demand of him was that the Commission’s decision to fine, revoke the offices of representatives of the people who did not pay the fines and prevent other candidates from becoming candidates for six years not be implemented because it was illegal.”
The Election Commission fined Shah Rs 750,000 in September 2022 for failing to submit details of expenses incurred during his victorious election campaign. A total of 123,624 winning and losing candidates in local elections were fined by the Electoral Commission.
The Electoral Commission had said that the candidates breached clause 26(1) of the Electoral Commission Act which requires candidates to submit details of expenditure within 30 days of the election result.
The defeated candidates will not be able to be candidates while those elected will lose their positions if they do not pay the fines within a period of six months.
Shah claimed in his petition that he had submitted the details of the expenses on time.
Candidates were required to submit details by June 25, 2022 (30 days), which fell on a Saturday. Shah has argued that he had submitted the details the next day, as Saturday is a public holiday. The Electoral Commission, however, had remained open even on Saturdays during that period.
Shah has noted that he spent only Rs 394,489 on his campaign, well below the Election Commission’s ceiling of Rs 750,000. He has also claimed that he and many others have suffered injustice at the hands of the Electoral Commission.
