HC junks Cong substitute nominee's plea for Indore fight

INDORE: A division bench of Madhya Pradesh high court on Friday upheld a single-judge bench’s order dismissing a plea by Congress’ Moti Singh Patel for his candidature to be accepted as the party nominee for Lok Sabha elections after official candidate Akshay Kanti Bam pulled out of the poll race at the last minute.

The Indore bench, comprising Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice Gajendra Singh, said Patel’s application was “bereft of merit and substance”.

Patel had approached the division bench after a single-judge bench of Justice Vivek Rusia on April 30 turned down his plea to overturn the rejection of his nomination by district election officer and to be allotted the Congress ‘hand’ symbol to contest polls. Indore votes in the fourth phase on May 13.

Patel’s candidature was rejected during scrutiny on April 25. Bam’s papers were cleared as the ‘approved Congress candidate’, but he suddenly pulled out on April 29, the last day for withdrawal of nominations. It left Congress without a candidate in Indore for the first time ever.

Patel’s counsel Vibhor Khandelwal contended before the division bench that the returning officer may have been right in rejecting Patel’s nomination on April 26 since at that time he was not the approved Congress candidate and his form was not signed by 10 proposers. But in view of the proviso to sub-section (5) of Section 36 of the Act, the returning officer ought to have given a day’s time to Patel to get signatures of 10 proposers and examine the nomination form the next day, he said. Since Bam withdrew his candidature, Patel’s form should be scrutinised and accepted so that he can contest the election, Khandelwal contended.

Election Commission counsel Mini Ravindran submitted that the writ petition itself is not maintainable, arguing that Supreme Court had earlier held that any interference by high courts entertaining petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution and issuing directions after commencement of the electoral process “has the effect of interpreting, obstruction or protracting the election proceedings”.