Chandigarh: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea of Haryana BJP MLA Devender Chattar Bhuj Attri challenging the proceedings in the Punjab and Haryana high court on a petition against his election from Uchana in the Oct 2024 assembly elections.The order paves the way for the hearing of the petition filed by former Hisar MP and Congress functionary Brijendra Singh. Brijendra, a bureaucrat-turned-politician, lost to Attri by a margin of just 32 votes. Brijendra’s initial election petition challenged Attri’s victory on multiple grounds. However, he later amended his plea, confining the relief sought only to the recounting of postal ballots. In his amended submission, Brijendra noted that 215 postal ballots were declared invalid by the returning officer. Out of 1,377 postal votes received, 1,158 were counted as valid, with Brijendra polling 636. The amended plea stated that Brijendra would be satisfied if the issue regarding the improper rejection of the 215 votes was decided, dropping his other claims. The HC, in its Sept 18, 2025, orders permitted Brijendra’s amended plea. As Attri challenged the decision, citing technical and procedural grounds, the HC, in its Sept 18 ruling, dismissed the objection. The court noted that the amendment was for the deletion of prayers, not the addition of new ones, and thus caused no prejudice to the returned candidate. The HC further observed that Attri in fact benefited from the amendment by gaining an opportunity to file a written statement and by having the overall grounds of challenge reduced. Aggrieved, Attri moved a special leave petition (SLP) in the SC, which initially stayed the HC order. However, on Wednesday, the apex court dismissed Attri’s petition. MSID:: 127909842 413 |
