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The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition demanding that the results of last year’s Maharashtra Assembly elections be set aside due to alleged discrepancies in the polling process.
A bench of Justice GS Kulkarni and Arif Doctor refused to entertain the writ petition filed by a man named Chetan Chandrakant Ahire. The court said that the petition deserved to be dismissed with costs, but it refrained from doing so.
The petitioner claimed that about 76 lakh votes, or 6.8% of the total votes, were polled after the official closing time of 6 pm. He contended that these votes were illegal as the Election Commission had no data about them.
Ahire, in his petition filed through advocate Prakash Ambedkar, alleged discrepancies between the number of votes polled and the number of votes counted in over 90 constituencies. He claimed that returning officers neglected Election Commission norms by not reporting these alleged discrepancies.
The petitioner sought an order setting aside the results across all 288 Assembly constituencies in the state due to alleged violations in the polling process. He also sought the details of the voting tokens after 6 pm, a constituency-wise breakdown of votes cast outside official hours and the revocation of election certificates for successful candidates.
The bench, however, did not accept these contentions. It said that it was “quite astonished” about how the petition was filed based merely on an opinion piece and a newspaper report, which it said contained unsubstantiated claims.
“Except such limited material, there is no other material whatsoever, much less of any authenticity, to the effect that there was any malpractice, fraud or complaint of any nature in regard to the voting at the closing hours of the poll i.e. at about 6 pm..” it said.
The court also said that the hearing of the matter took a whole day, due to which urgent cases had to be left aside.
The bench said that the petition was unsustainable on several grounds.
It noted that the petitioner had not approached the Election Commission making his “demand for justice” before invoking its writ jurisdiction, which made the petition not maintainable, it said.
“This apart, we wonder as to how the petitioner can have a locus standi to seek such wide, sweeping and drastic reliefs to question the entire elections of the State Legislative Assembly,” it said. “It is a relief, too far fetched, that too on the basis of no cause of action as the facts clearly demonstrate.”
The court also noted that the petition was barred under Article 329(b) of the Constitution.
This provision bars courts from interfering with election proceedings and states that challenges to elections can only be undertaken through an election petition presented to the appropriate authority.
“These provisions constitute a code by itself and cannot be by-passed in questioning the solemnity of the elections as conducted by the ECI [Election Commission] within the constitutional setup,” the court said.
The bench said that the petition was based on suspicion and rejected it.
The dismissal came two days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that “vote theft” had taken place in the Maharashtra Assembly elections in November. Gandhi demanded the immediate release of machine-readable digital voter rolls and CCTV footage of the election.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance had defeated the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which includes the Congress, in the Assembly polls.
Gandhi has consistently been demanding access to voter lists, polling data and election footage, alleging irregularities in the elections.
This article first appeared on Scroll.in
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