The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday refused to grant an urgent hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) plea moved by a voter challenging the declaration of BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal as the winner of the Surat Lok Sabha seat.
Dalal was elected unopposed from the seat on April 22 after the Congress candidate’s nomination was rejected and eight other candidates withdrew their nomination forms. Surat was set to go to the polls on May 7 in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024, along with the other 25 seats in Gujarat.
The advocate appearing for the petitioner informed the court that the petitioner, Bhaveshbhai Patel, is a voter in the constituency of Surat, and the respondent Election Commission of India has already given the certificate to the BJP candidate as the winning candidate without elections being conducted. The advocate highlighted that “there is always an option of negative voting to the voters which is not being given in this instance”.
Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal, however, pointed out that the grounds on which the petitioner is agitating would fall within the ambit of an election petition and not a PIL. “The law is, if you’re making any dispute with regard to the election of any candidate for any reason, you’ve to file an election petition. You’re highlighting a flaw in the process/procedure by which a candidate has been declared a winning candidate. So, this argument falls within the jurisdiction of an election petition. When there’s a statutory remedy, PIL cannot be entertained,” said Chief Justice Agarwal.
“If a candidate is elected uncontested, he is also in the same position as a winning candidate who has been declared a winning candidate after the process of polling and counting of votes; he doesn’t fall in any other different criteria, and there is no provision in the Representation of the People Act to treat him differently, so don’t make it a PIL issue….There is no urgency, according to us; you’ve approached the wrong forum,” Justice Agarwal added.
The nomination form of Surat Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to Surat District Election Officer Saurabh Pardhi claiming that the signatures on the document were not theirs. The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress’ substitute candidate in Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
The other eight candidates, including one from the Bahujan Samaj Party, withdrew their nomination forms. The DEO declared BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal elected unopposed from Surat the next day.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 04-30-2024 at 13:33 IST
Tags: Gujarat refuses urgent hearing plea challenging BJPs Surat win File election petition PIL entertained Ahmedabad News
