JUDGMENT :

Election Application No. 22 of 2023:

1. Draft amendment is allowed in terms of the draft. Same shall be carried out forthwith.

2. Captioned application by the applicant – original respondent no.5 (hereinafter referred to as “the applicant”), inter alia, is praying for rejection of the election petition in accordance with the provisions of the Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as “the Code”) read with Section 87 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act of 1951”) as well as the Rules 276, 282, 283 & 285 of the Gujarat High Court Rules, 1993 (hereinafter referred to as “the Rules of 1993”).

3. Tersely stated are the facts:

3.1 Election of Gujarat State Assembly was declared, and as per the election programme the date of election was 05.12.2022 and the result was declared on 08.12.2022. Discernibly, 20 candidates have filed their nomination forms; 2 came to be rejected and 18 were accepted. Further 2 candidates withdrew their candidature and rest of 16 candidates i.e. respondent nos.5 to 20, participated in the election. Respondent no.5 was declared as receiving the highest votes who won the e