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Synopsis

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed an election petition challenging UBT Shiv Sena Sanjay Patil’s victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.

A single-judge bench of the high court comprising Justice Sandeep Marne was hearing a petition filed by Shahji Tharot challenging the results of Mumbai North East Constituency.

Tharot had challenged Patil’s victory on the ground that he did not add his mother’s name alongside his father’s name.

Patil had won the Mumbai North East Constituency by a margin of more than 29000 votes.

During the hearing, the high court questioned Thorat as he did not implead all the contesting candidates to the petition as per the requirement of Section 82 of the Representation of People’s Act 1951.

Later, Tharod issued a summons to all the 18 contesting candidates and argued that the summons was sufficient to comply with the requirements of Section 82 of the act.

The high court in its order noted that even if the application filed by Tharot was to be treated as impleadment application even then his petition ought to be rejected because it was filed beyond 45 days.

“The statutory scheme under Sections 81 and 82 of the Act is such that a validly filed Election Petition conforming to the provisions of Section 82 of the Act must be presented within a period of 45 days. When Petitioner seeks declaration of his own election, the affected parties are not just the returned candidate, but also the contesting candidates. As observed above, every contesting candidate has right under Section 97 of the Act to file a recriminating petition for seeking a declaration that he himself be declared as elected instead of Petitioner. In that view of the matter, Election Petition qua all contesting candidates must also be filed within a period of 45 days of the election of the returned candidates,” the judgement states.

The bench also noted that there was a fundamental defect in the petition since it was not compliant with section 82 of the act.

“The word used in Section 86(1) is ‘shall’, leaving no option for the Court but to dismiss the Election Petition which is non compliant with provisions of Section 82. The fundamental defect in the Election Petition of non-impleadment of all contesting candidates cannot be sought to be cured by filing an Application for impleadment of such contesting candidates,” the judgement reads.

Accordingly, the bench proceeded to dismiss the petition filed by Tharot.

Case title: Shahaji Nanai Thorat vs State of Maharashtra & Ors