IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT GWALIOR BEFORE HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE G. S. AHLUWALIA ELECTION PETITION No. 24 of 2024 RAMNIWAS RAWAT Versus MUKESH MALHOTRA AND OTHERS Appearance:

Shri M.P.S.Raghuvanshi, Senior Advocate with Shri Sanjay Dwivedi, Shri Sankalp Sharma, Shri Nipun Saxena, Shri Dharmendra Dwivedi, Ms.Sonam Mittal, Mohd. Amir Khan, Shri Manish Singh Gurjar, Ms.Deepali Dabas, Ms.Aadya Pandey, Ms. Tanya Agrawal, Shri Dev Nagar, Ms.Namrata Tomar, Shri Joyjeet Kumar Das, Shri Harshit Raghuvanshi - Advocates for petitioners.

Shri Vivek K. Tankha, Senior Advocate with Shri PratipVisoriya, Shri Siddhant Gupta, Shri Inder Dev Singh, Shri Abhishek Singh Chauhan, Shri Vishesh Dwivedi and Ms.Ayushi Sharma - Advocates for respondent No.1.

Shri Ravindra Sharma - Advocate for respondents No.2,3, 5 to 9.

Shri Navnidhi Parharya - Advocate for respondent No.4. Shri Priyanshu Yadav - Advocate for respondent No.10.

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Reserved on : 26.02.2026 Pronounced on : 09.03.2026 __________________________________________________________________

JUDGMENT

1. This Election Petition under Section 80/81 of Representation of the People Act has been filed seeking the following reliefs:

It is, therefore, humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Court may kindly be pleased to allow this petition and may further be pleased to grant following relief to the petitioner :

(i) The Hon’ble Court may kindly be pleased to declare the election of respondent no.1 from Assembly Constituency 02 Vijaypur vide election certificate dated 23-11-2024 (Annexure P/11) is void;

(ii) The Hon’ble Court may further declare that the petitioner is duly elected from Assembly Constituency 02 Vijaypur;

(iii) Any other suitable direction which this Hon’ble Court deems fit in the fact and circumstances of the case may kindly be passed ;

(iv) Cost of petition may kindly be awarded.

2. The facts necessary for disposal of present election petition in short are that Election Petitioner was the Member of Legislative Assembly (in short MLA) for the terms of 1990-93, 1993-1998, 2003-2008, 2008-2013 and 2013- 2018. Election Commission of India (in short ECI) issued Press Note dated 9- 10-2023 thereby notifying and declaring the General Election of Legislative Assemblies of Madhya Pradesh. The Election Petitioner contested the said election on the ticket of Indian National Congress and was declared elected for the 16^th Assembly of the State of M.P. from Assembly Constituency 02 Vijaypur, Distt. Sheopur. Thereafter, the Election Petitioner submitted his resignation and joined Bhartiya Janta Party, as a result the seat of MLA Assembly Constituency 02 Vijaypur, Distt. Sheopur fell vacant. Accordingly, ECI vide its Press Note dated 15-10-2024 declared bye-election for the said seat. The date of Polling was 12-11-2024 and date of Counting was 23-11-2024. The Election Petitioner filed his nomination for Assembly Constituency 02 Vijaypur, Distt. Sheopur on the ticket of BJP, whereas the respondent no.1/Mukesh Malhotra also submitted his nomination paper on the ticket of Indian National Congress. The other respondents also submitted their nomination papers. The respondent no.1/Mukesh Malhotra was declared elected and certificate of election was issued to him.

3. The present Election Petition has been filed mainly on the ground that in the affidavit which is to be filled in as per form 26, was not completely filled up by the respondent no.1/Mukesh Malhotra and vital informations were suppressed. Total 6 criminal cases were registered against the respondent no.1/Mukesh Malhotra but he disclosed incomplete information about two cases only. The Election Petitioner has bifurcated the information given by respondent no.1/Mukesh Malhotra in respect of his criminal cases in two categories which are as under :

Group 1 : Cases which are disclosed but without giving full details about them :

(i) Case registered in Police Station Karahal at crime no. 2/2022 for crime un