Jalna: The Bombay High Court has dismissed a Congress leader’s petition challenging the election of Shiv Sena MLA Arjun Khotkar in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, citing that the plea had no merit.
The plea filed by Kailash Gorantyal of the Congress stated that Khotkar was not eligible as he was the chairman of the Jalna Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC).
Gorantyal, who lost to Khotkar from Jalna assembly constituency in the polls by more than 31,000 votes.
Justice Kishore C Sant of the Aurangabad bench on Monday dismissed the plea.
Gorantyal approached the high court implicating the Election Commission of India and the returning officers in the petition and raised objections to Khotkar’s election.
The Congress leader alleged that Khotkar was holding an “office of profit” as chairman of the Jalna Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), which, he argued, made him ineligible to contest the elections.
He also alleged that the affidavit submitted by Khotkar, along with his nomination papers, was not in the prescribed format.
Advocate SB Deshpande presented an argument on behalf of Khotkar.
After hearing both sides, the court observed that the alleged non-disclosure was not a material fact and did not give rise to disqualification under Article 191 of the Constitution of India.
He noted that the objections raised were of a trivial and technical nature and that there was no evidence to suggest that voters were misled by reason of any such non-disclosure.
Even if there was some suppression, it did not materially affect the outcome of the elections, the court said, dismissing the request stating that it was unfounded.
