The Supreme Court of India, in an interim order, has withheld a Gujarat High Court order cancelling the election of Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, the state’s Education and Law Minister, as an MLA in 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections on grounds of malpractice and manipulation. The court served a notice to Congress leader Aswhin Rathod, who had lost that election by a mere 327 votes.
In many such cases we stay the High Court order said Supreme Court.
In the hearing Mr Chudasama’s lawyers argued that the Gujarat High Court should have called for the 429 postal ballots that had been “illegally rejected” during the counting process to see if their rejection was in accordance with the rules.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal, pleading for his party colleague, argued that if the votes had not been counted in the first place, they could not be declared as rejected.
The top court then said it was “inclined to stay the order”, something Mr Sibal opposed. The court overruled that, saying: “In many such cases we stay the High Court order”.
Minister Chudasama moved the top court a day after the Gujarat High Court declared his election “void”, saying that Dhaval Jani, the returning officer, had been “hand in gloves” with the BJP leader and that 429 postal ballots had been “illegally rejected”.
In his ruling Gujarat High Court’s Justice Paresh Upadhyay, who also rejected Mr Chudasama’s request for a stay so he could file an appeal, said the rejection of postal ballots, the incorrect procedures adopted for counting of votes and “corrupt practices” of Mr Chudasama materially affected the outcome of the election.
Minister was happy with the decision and expressed his joy through his tweeter handle.
સુપ્રીમ કોર્ટમાં સ્ટે મળી ગયેલ છે.
સત્યમેવ જયતે.— Bhupendrasinh Chudasama (@imBhupendrasinh) May 15, 2020
BJP Gujarat spokesman Bharat Pandya welcome Supreme Court decision granting stay on Gujarat high court order about election result of Bhupendrasinh Chudasama
