India, July 1 -- The Rajasthan High Court has dismissed an election petition challenging the election of Ritu Banawat from the Bayana Assembly constituency in Bharatpur district in 2023, holding that the petitioner failed to establish any concealment of assets or other material information that could have affected the poll outcome or amounted to a corrupt practice.

A single-judge bench of Justice Sudesh Bansal, however, imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on Banawat for evading summons in the election petition for a prolonged period, observing that such conduct unnecessarily delayed the judicial proceedings by around 10 months.

The court on Monday directed Banawat, an independent MLA, to pay the amount to the petitioner within 30 days.

The ele...