Supreme Court stays HC order quashing election of Maharashtra Shiv Sena MLA

Pic courtesy: Twitter

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Bombay High Court order setting aside Shiv Sena MLA and state minister Arjun Khotkar's election to the legislative assembly from Jalna in 2014 on the ground that he had filed his nomination papers after the deadline.

The top court said the matter be listed for final disposal in first week of March 2018 for detailed hearing.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said upon careful scrutiny of the high court verdict, "it is a fit case where the impugned judgment and order should be stayed and, accordingly, it is so ordered".

During the hearing, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Khotkar, said the high court has not kept in view the concept of consistency of evidence and relied on inadmissible evidence.

He said there was enough material on record to come to a definite conclusion that Khotkar was within the premises of the Returning Officer and the nomination paper was filed within stipulated time of 3 pm.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Kailash Kushanrao Gorantyal, a Congress leader who lost against Khotkar, said the high court had perused a CD and taken note of the evidence on record to come to a definite conclusion that his nomination papers were not filed within time and hence the conclusion arrived at by the judge cannot be found fault with.

The apex court noted that the high court judge had set aside the election on two grounds -- the nomination was filed belatedly and the original affidavit was not filed along with the form.

"It is not in dispute that multiple nomination forms can be filed by a candidate, but the said forms, though accepted by the Returning Officer, have been treated to be invalid by the high court, singularly on the ground that they were filed beyond 3 pm," it said.

On November, 24, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court had quashed the election of Shiv Sena MLA after hearing an election petition filed by Kailash Gorantyal, Congress candidate from Jalna, who had contested against Khotkar in the 2014 state elections.

Gorantyal, in his petition, had claimed that Khotkar, a four time MLA, had filed his nominations after the deadline. He had further urged the court to declare him (Gorantyal) as de facto MLA as he had lost to Khotkar by a margin of 296 votes.

The high court had however, said that although it was declaring Khotkar's election as "null and void", it will not pass any orders declaring Gorantyal as MLA.

The bench had stayed its order for a period of four weeks so that Khotkar can appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.