Friday, March 24 2006 20:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Election Commission today (Mar 24 2006) asked Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress to provide details regarding their petitions for disqualification of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and nine other Left party MPs to substantiate the charges.

In a notice to Mukul Roy, General Secretary of All India Trinamool Congress, the Commission said the petition by the party did not disclose the date of appointment of the persons to the post or any documentary evidence to substantiate the allegation.

It asked the party to furnish by April 17 the precise information about the date of appointment of each of the persons.

It said that the Commission's jurisdiction to enquire into the issue arises only in cases of post-election disqualification.

Besides Chatterjee, the party sought disqualification of Mohd Salim, Hannan Mollah, Lakshman Seth, Amitava Nandi, Sudhanshu Sil, Tarit Baran Topdar, Banmasagopal Chowdhury, Sujan Chakraborty (All Lok Sabha) and Nilotpal Basu (Rajya Sabha).

The Commission also sent a notice to Mahaksingh Malik, an advocate in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, who sought disqualification of Anuradha Choudhary (Lok Sabha) and asked for more information.