Cuttack: A petition filed in Orissa High Court has sought intervention against inaction of the Election Commission of India (ECI) against Polsara MLA Srikant Sahu for allegedly giving incorrect information regarding his educational qualification while filing his nomination papers.

In his complaint to the ECI, Rohit Pradhan had alleged that Sahu had claimed to have passed in Class X, while he had actually failed in the examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education.

"Sahu had appeared in the board examination from Hatiota High School in Ganjam, where he was a student. But, he could not qualify. So, by no stretch of imagination can he style himself to have passed Class-X examination as he had failed in the said examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Examination," Pradhan had claimed in his complaint to the ECI.

"After we assessed the information of the Polsara MLA's educational qualification through RTI from the headmaster of Hatiota High School, we filed the complaint before the ECI on January 31, 2018. As no action was taken, a petition was filed in the Orissa High Court on Tuesday," Pradhan's counsel Sidharth Prasad Das said.

"We have sought the court's direction to the ECI to complete the inquiry into the complaint in accordance with law and take action against the MLA accordingly," Das said.

Sahu of the BJD had won from the Polsara Assembly constituency in April 2014 by defeating Gokulananda Malik of the Congress by a margin of 21, 217 votes.

The petitioner, a resident of Chirikipada Sasan and voter of Polsara, has also sought the court's direction for appropriate criminal action and to declare the election of Sahu from the Assembly constituency as "void".

The petitioner has alleged before the ECI that Sahu's statement relating to his educational qualification was "incorrect" and hence it was "tantamount to filing false affidavit".