New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Gujarat high court order nullifying started minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama’s election in 2017 on grounds of malpractice and manipulation, issuing notice in the matter.
A bench of Justices Mohan M. Shantanagoudar and R. Subhash Reddy passed the interim order, issuing notice on the BJP leader’s plea and sought a response from Congress candidate Ashwin Rathod, among others.
Chudasama is currently the minister for law and justice, legislative and parliamentary affairs, education and some other departments in the Vijay Rupani government. On May 12, the Gujarat high court had nullified the election of Chudasama after agreed with the petitioner’s arguments that the returning officer had illegally cancelled 429 postal ballot votes, while the victory margin was only 327. The court also found several breaches of election rules. The court had also refused to stay the operation of the order until the BJP leader’s appeal is disposed of.
The Gujarat HC’s order was issued in a petition filed by Ashwin Rathod, the Congress candidate from the Dholka constituency.
Chudasama had filed an appeal against the HC’s decision. According to LiveLaw, senior advocates Harish Salve and Neeraj Kishan Kaul appeared for Chudasama, while Kapil Sibal appeared for Rathod.
Salve submitted that the HC judge should have called for the 429 votes and “seen whether they had been rightly rejected or not”. “You have to see if the results are materially affected by this. It is not for the Returning Officer to just be ready and willing to be examined; he HAS to be examined,” Salve submitted, according to the website.
Kaul submitted that there was no corrupt practices, adding that there was no link between Chudasama and Dhaval Jani, the returning officer. “How is there a material benefit established? I am looking at the Education and Law Minister, having been unseated during the times of COVID,” Kaul said, according to LiveLaw.
Sibal said that while the RO had signed a form saying 429 postal ballots were rejected but that he told the observer that no ballot was rejected. He was then informed by the bench that the RO had submitted a written statement explaining why the postal ballots were rejected.
“There will be mandatory verification of postal ballots in that case. See the collusion. It is deeply malafide”, submits Sibal.
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) May 15, 2020
Justice Shantanagoudar informed the lawyers that the Gujarat HC order had to be stayed. The court then issued notice in the matter.