In what appears to be a case of relatives with rival political affiliations turning on each other,Congress leader Anita Babbar,who lost the 2008 Delhi Assembly polls to the brother of her father-in-law,has dragged him to High Court. She claimed in her petition that BJP candidate O P Babbar employed family pressure to defeat her. O P Babbar,who eventually won the elections,filed a counter-petition that her application be dismissed on ground of deficiencies. Last week,the High Court rejected his petition saying an election petition cannot be dismissed on grounds of technical lacunae so as to abort the endeavours of the petitioner to bring to trial the issues relating to corrupt practices in the election. Free,fair and fearless elections are intended to maintain the vibrancy of the democratic process and cannot be sacrificed at the altar of superficial technicalities, said Judge Reva Khetrapal. Anita,who contested the polls from Tilak Nagar constituency,said in her petition that Babbar made all her close relatives coerce her into pulling out of the election and also threatened to excommunicate her from the biradari (community). The defence said Anitas petition should be dismissed as true copies of various documents were not supplied to them, and there were other technical deficiencies. The High Court will hear the charges against Babbar during the next hearing in July.
