Election petitions must be filed within 45 days of election results; failure to comply with statutory requirements leads to dismissal.

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 election of 18 – Patan Assembly.

3.2 Grievance raised by the petitioner is that the respondent no.5 had filed affidavit dated 17.11.2022 in Form 26 together with nomination papers before the Returning Officer. Certain incorrect information were provided in connection with the First Information Report. Rather, registration of First Information Report was omitted and was not finding place in the affidavit; despite, the respondent no.5 had the complete knowledge. The petitioner, therefore, submitted an application on 01.12.2022 to the Returning Officer; however, no steps were taken and in the meantime, the respondent no.5 was declared as winning candidate. Again the petitioner approached respondent nos.1 to 4 for declaring the election as null and void, but no steps were taken. According to the petitioner, furnishing incorrect and incomplete information in the affidavit together with the nomination paper, would render the nomination form ineligible and has to be rejected under the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 36 of the Act of 1951 and hence, the captioned election petition, inter alia, seeking writ of quo warranto against the respondent no.5 for illegally holding the post of legislative assembly 18 – Patan. The petitioner, has also sought for declaration that the election of the respondent no.5 be declared as null and void.

3.3 Result of the election was declared on 08.12.2022. The election petition was presented on 18.01.2023 and was registered on 17.02.2023. Scrutiny of the election petition, took place on 18.01.2023 and the office of the learned advocate was informed about the same on 19.01.2023. Some of the office objections were removed in the interregnum and as per the letter dated 16.02.2023 of the learned advocate appearing for the petitioner, Rs.2,000/-, as per the provisions of Section 117 of the Act of 1951, was paid only on 16.02.2023. Thus, all the office objections were removed only on 17.02.2023.

3.4 Captioned application is filed seeking rejection of election petition, as it does not comply with the provisions of Section 81 of the Act of 1951, i.e. presentation of petition within 45 days of the date of declaration of result. Incidental to the main issues are; (i) that the copy of the election petition provided to the respondent is not attested by the petitioner; (ii) that parties to the petition are not as provided under Section 82 of the Act of 1951; (iii) that petition does not provide for material facts and particulars in a concise statement as contained in clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Section 83 of the Act of 1951; (iv) that there is suppression of material facts; (v) that the deposit of security for cost of Rs.2,000/- beyond the limit of 45 days, and (vi) that the election can be called only under Section 81 of the Act o