AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday said it will first examine the maintainability of an election petition challenging the returning officer's decision to reject the nomination of Congress's Surat Lok Sabha candidate.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared the winner from Surat Lok Sabha seat after the nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected and other candidates withdrew from the race.
The court of Justice JC Doshi said that similar election petitions have been filed by some other voter and not by the losing candidates from the given constituency and they have to first satisfy themselves about the maintainability of the petitions.
"If such petitions are considered, all the voters will come here...the losing candidate is not here, only the voters are here...there is no hurry in this matter," he said, adding that he Assistant Government Advocate Mohd. will need help regarding the maintainability of the petition.
The court has kept the next hearing of the case for July 11.
The election petition was filed by three voters from Surat parliamentary constituency and questioned the decision of the Returning Officer under Section 36 of the Representation of the People Act relating to scrutiny of nomination forms.
Kalpesh Barot, Firoz Malek and Ashok Pimple have sought a direction from the court to quash the Surat Returning Officer's decision of rejecting the nomination form of the Congress candidate and declare Dalal's victory invalid.
Surat, one of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, was won unopposed by the BJP candidate on April 22, the date of withdrawal of nomination forms.
Elections were held on 7 May in the third phase on 25 seats in Gujarat. In the results declared on June 4, BJP won 24 of these 25 seats, while one seat went to the Congress.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared the winner from Surat Lok Sabha seat after the nomination of Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected and other candidates withdrew from the race.
The court of Justice JC Doshi said that similar election petitions have been filed by some other voter and not by the losing candidates from the given constituency and they have to first satisfy themselves about the maintainability of the petitions.
"If such petitions are considered, all the voters will come here...the losing candidate is not here, only the voters are here...there is no hurry in this matter," he said, adding that he Assistant Government Advocate Mohd. will need help regarding the maintainability of the petition.
The court has kept the next hearing of the case for July 11.
The election petition was filed by three voters from Surat parliamentary constituency and questioned the decision of the Returning Officer under Section 36 of the Representation of the People Act relating to scrutiny of nomination forms.
Kalpesh Barot, Firoz Malek and Ashok Pimple have sought a direction from the court to quash the Surat Returning Officer's decision of rejecting the nomination form of the Congress candidate and declare Dalal's victory invalid.
Surat, one of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, was won unopposed by the BJP candidate on April 22, the date of withdrawal of nomination forms.
Elections were held on 7 May in the third phase on 25 seats in Gujarat. In the results declared on June 4, BJP won 24 of these 25 seats, while one seat went to the Congress.
