RO mustn’t reject nomination papers if objection is not solid: Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) has restrained returning officers (ROs) from rejecting nomination papers of candidates who don’t show assets mistakenly.

The apex court gave these orders on Saturday while announcing the detailed order of reserved judgment on the plea filed by Yasir Aftab, a candidate for councillor seat in local bodies polls in Sindh, against the election commission’s decision of rejecting his nomination papers.

Justice Munib Akhar wrote the 12-page detailed decision.

The SC order said that returning officer, while making a decision on nomination papers under the Sindh Local Government Act, should satisfy himself if the objection raised on nomination papers of the candidate is not solid, then it is binding on the RO not to reject nomination papers.

If the objections on nomination papers of the candidate are solid, the RO can ignore the objection after it is corrected. It will not be justice if the nomination papers of those candidates are rejected who don’t show their assets mistakenly.

However, the candidate has no right to claim and it is the prerogative of the RO.