Bombay High Court Upholds Election Of BJP MLA Captain Tamil Selvan

The Bombay High Court on Monday (August 18) dismissed a petition challenging the election of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Captain R Tamil Selvan to the Maharashtra Assembly from the Sion-Koliwada constituency.Single-judge Justice Milind Jadhav dismissed Congress candidate Ganesh Kumar Yadav's election petition for failing to establish how Selvan resorted to corrupt practices and how non-disclosure of his liabilities and government dues, 'materially' affected the elections. The judge prima facie said that the Election Petition comprised of vague and generic pleadings and there was a complete absence of material facts."There is absolute non-compliance of the provisions of Section 83 of the Representation of People's (RP) Act which contemplate that an Election Petition has to mandatorily contain a concise statement of material facts to begin with on which the Petitioner relies and full particulars of any corrupt practice that he alleges including as full a statement as possible of names of parties alleged to have committed such corrupt practices and the date and place of commission of each such practice," the judge said. The petitioner, Justice Jadhav said, merely alleged general and vague violations by Selvan without specifying any details whatsoever. "No concise statement of material facts alleging violation under Section 83 of the RP Act is stated. Hence, the grounds (challenging the election) stated in the Petition are not in consonance with the violation alleged under Section 83 read with Section 100(1)(d)(iv) of RP Act since no particulars are given and Petitioner himself has during the course of his arguments to oppose the Order VII Rule 11 Application argued that he should be given an opportunity to produce evidence to that effect at trial," the judge said. Notably, Yadav, who lost to Selvan by 7,895 votes in the 2024 Assembly elections, had contended that the BJP leader failed to disclose his total liabilities in the nomination form and also failed to disclose the fact that an arbitration award has been passed against him to the tune of Rs 2.90 crores which was payable to the Indian Railways. He further pointed out that Selvan did not disclose the pending housing loan to the tune of Rs 90 lakhs. However, the judge noted from the material on record, that the home loan was in Selvan's daughter's name. Further it was noted that the arbitration award was already stayed by the High Court. It further noted that the Returning Officer had scrutinised the nomination form of Selvan and at that time there had been no objection to the said nomination form. "Once such scrutiny attains finality, then election can only be set aside under Section 100 if it is shown that the result of such election has been materially affected by non-compliance with the provisions of the Constitution or the RP Act. The pleadings in the Petition do not disclose how the alleged omissions had a material bearing on the result of the election. In the present case the alleged omissions do not amount to non- compliance with provisions of Section 33 or Rule 4A so as to constitute a defect of substantial character under Section 36(4) of the RP Act," the judge said. Further, the judge pointed out that the Petitioner has exercised his right to question the Affidavit (nomination form) by filing the present Election Petition under Section 100(1)(d)(iv) of the RP Act. However, there are no material facts stated in the Petition constituting cause of action to maintain challenge to this ground under Section 100(1)(d)(iv) of RP Act, the judge said. As regards the pending Arbitration award, the bench said, "Once the Arbitration Award is stayed by the Competent Court in pending proceedings, non-disclosure of the same as liability of Respondent No.1 is not required to be disclosed as the said liability is not crystallised. It is pending adjudication."With these observations, the judge dismissed the election petition. Appearance: Advocates Premlal Krishnan, Nadeem Sharma, Hrishikesh Nadkarni, Kailash Tiwari, Salman Atharia and Abuzar Khan instructed by Pan India Legal Services LLP appeared for Yadav.Senior Advocate Dr. Veerendra Tulzapurkar along with Advocates Mandar Soman and Shailesh Shukla instructed by Shailesh H Shukla & H Vaidyanathan Associates represented Selvan.Case Title: Ganesh Kumar Yadav vs Captain R Tamil Selvan (Election Petition 36 of 2025)Click Here To Read/Download Judgment

Bombay High Court Upholds Election Of BJP MLA Captain Tamil Selvan

Narsi Benwal

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