SC declines to entertain Sangma's plea against President

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed by a majority ruling former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma's petition challenging the election of senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee as President.

Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, who led the 3-to-2 majority ruling, held that Sangma's petition was not maintainable for regular hearing. The dissenting judges held that the petition deserves regular hearing with one of them noting it was alleged that Mukherjee was holding an office of profit when he filed his nomination papers.

"The election petition is not maintainable for regular hearing. It is dismissed," the Chief Justice pronounced the verdict on behalf of him and Justices P Sathasivam and SS Nijjar.  The two dissenting orders were pronounced separately by Justices J Chelameswar and Ranjan Gogoi.

Justice Chelameswar, who read out the operative portion of his order dissenting with the order read out by the CJI, said he would state the reasons for dissenting with majority order shortly next week. Justice Gogoi said since it was alleged that Mukherjee was holding the office of profit as the chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), he is of the view that the election petition filed by Sangma was fit to deserve regular hearing.