Days after BJP’s Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Gujarat’s Surat Lok Sabha seat, the high court on Tuesday refused to grant an urgent hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) plea moved by a voter who challenged the declaration of Dalal as the winning candidate from the constituency.
The grounds on which the petitioner was challenging the result, would fall in the ambit of an election petition and not a PIL, Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal of the Gujarat high court.
“The law is, if you are making any dispute with regard to the election of any candidate for any reason, you have to file an election petition. You are highlighting a flaw in the process/procedure by which someone has been declared a winning candidate. So, this argument falls within the jurisdiction of an election petition. When there is a statutory remedy, a PIL cannot be entertained,” said Chief Justice Agarwal.
The Chief Justice also observed that there was no different criteria for a nominee elected unopposed, who, she noted, would be in the same position as a person winning an election after the process of polling and counting of votes.
“There is no provision in the Representation of People Act for the person to be treated differently, so do not make it a PIL issue. According to us, there is no urgency. You have approached the wrong forum,” she stated.
The litigation was moved by Bhaveshbhai Patel, a voter from the Surat constituency. Appearing for Patel, his advocate highlighted that “the option of negative voting was not being provided in this case.”
Surat is among 26 Lok Sabha segments in Gujarat, the home state of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. The BJP won all 26 seats here in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In the ongoing national polls, all Gujarat constituencies are to vote on May 7, the third of the seven-phase elections. Now, however, the voting will be held on 25 seats.
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