DELHI For once, the Election Commission of India is at the receiving end. It has realised much to its grief that it is being beaten with its own stick. Its shortlived "no dues" circular issued during the November assembly elections is going to cost it a neat packet in next month's Lok Sabha polls.

DO THE DUES: Rudy (left) and Babbar have quickly paid up

Last week, the Delhi High Court directed the EC to publish in at least two local dailies details of the outstanding telephone, electricity, water, accommodation and travel dues of candidates contesting the polls. Hearing a PIL on a Rs 18.5 crore bill on outstanding electricity and telephone dues of 669 former and sitting MPs, the court directed the agency to disconnect the phones of defaulting politicians. Yet the court put the onus on the EC to inform the public about the nature of politicians seeking their vote. "It is all because we issued the circular in November clarifying that candidates had to obtain no dues certificate. We withdrew it five days later when candidates complained it was not possible for them to obtain the certificate," explains the EC's counsel S.K.Mendiratta.

The only consolation for the commission is that the court has upheld its point-candidates do not have to get a "no dues" certificate. They have to just file an affidavit stating what they owe. But members and ministers have been seen in Parliament House even settling their library dues. So while Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy wrote out a cheque for Rs 4,390 for books he couldn't return, Samajwadi Party MP Raj Babbar reimbursed a piffling Rs 470. It takes the polls to settle bills.

THE GOLDEN PUMPKIN | NAJMA HEPTULLAH Deputy Chairperson, Rajya Sabha

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptulla insists she is no migratory bird as she says Indian birds do not migrate. But technically, under the new anti-defection law, the Congress rebel will lose her membership in Parliament if she joins the BJP. So she will have to wait until her term expires in July.

Two things irritate Heptullah. One is the Congress claim that it vested her with four terms in Parliament and two is the party's charge that she is about to migrate for a fifth term. "The Congress did not exactly pick me up from the footpath. I was qualified," she says. She recalls how Rajiv Gandhi had removed her from the post of Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson between 1986 and 1988. "But post-Bofors he reappointed me to get on with the business of the House."

Heptullah, a member of the Congress since 1952 with its Kriya Shil-an organisation she bets only Pranab Mukherjee would know about-as a 12-year-old, says she can never be a liability to the party. So what's the buzz about her contesting as a BJP candidate from Bhopal?