Gujarat High Court to examine maintainability of petition challenging rejection of Congress’ Surat candidate nomination

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday said it would first examine the maintainability of an election suit challenging the Election Commission’s decision to reject the nomination of the Indian National Congress’ Surat Lok Sabha candidate.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared the winner of the Surat Assembly seat after Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbani’s nomination was rejected and other candidates withdrew from the election.

Justice JC Doshi said a similar election petition had been filed by another voter and not the losing candidate in the constituency in question and he would first have to ascertain for himself the maintainability of the petition.

“If such petitions are accepted, all the voters will come here… The losing candidates are not here, only the voters are here… There is no urgency in the matter,” he said, adding that assistance from the Additional Government Counsel was needed regarding the maintainability of the petition.

The court adjourned the matter for further hearing on July 11.

The election petition was filed by three voters from Surat constituency questioning the Election Officer’s decision under Section 36 of the Representation of People Act regarding scrutiny of nomination forms.

The three – Kalpesh Barot, Firoz Malek and Ashok Pimple – have sought a direction from the court to set aside the Surat Election Commission’s decision to reject the Congress candidate’s nomination paper and set aside Dalal’s victory.

Surat, one of Gujarat’s 26 assembly seats, was won unopposed by the BJP candidate on April 22, the day nomination papers were withdrawn.

The third phase of elections for 25 assembly seats in Gujarat was held on May 7. The results announced on June 4 showed that the BJP won 24 of the 25 seats, with one seat given to the Congress.