HC stays Katol by-poll slated on April 11
| Date :20-Mar-2019 |
Staff Reporter,
Putting questionmark over the by-poll for Katol assembly seat slated on April 11, Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted ad-interim stay to decision of Election Commission to hold election for Katol seat. A division bench consisting of Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Pushpa Ganediwala while issuing notice to Election Commission, Returning Officer, stayed the further process for Katol assembly by-polls. The High Court made it clear that it had no intention to interfere in the electoral process, but about the practicability of holding the election and huge public expenditure involved to elect a legislator for such a short duration. The notification has already been issued on March 18. In fact, this is the election, which no political party wants due to extremely short duration available to newly elected legislator. NCP supremo Sharad Pawar has publicly urged all major political parties not to field any candidate and demanded cancellation of this by-poll. The seat fell vacant following resignation of Ashish Deshmukh on October 3, 2018. After resigning from the BJP, Deshmukh had tendered his resignation to Assembly Speaker who accepted it three days later.
The by-poll was announced by ECI on March 10, catching political parties on a wrong foot. According to petitioner Sandip Sarode, Chairman of Katol Panchayat Samiti, the elected candidate will get less than three months to function and this election is an exercise in futility. The petitioner sought a direction to the Election Commission to cancel the by-poll slated on April 11. According to petitioner, the results will be declared on May 23 and oath will be administered during next session in June. Since state assembly elections are slated in October 2019, the code of conduct will be in force from September and new Katol MLA will hardly get three months tenure for which such a huge public money should not be wasted, the petitioner stated. The petitioner stated as per mandate of section 151-A of the Representation of Peoples Act, the elections must be held within six months from the date of vacancy but where remainder of the term of the member is less than one year. In this case, Deshmukh had resigned on October 3 while elections are slated on April 11 which is beyond the six months and results will be declared on May 23 which in effect is breach of section 151-A of RP Act and its proviso. The petitioner while seeking to cancel the by-polls stated that ECI must consider practicability and financial ramification of the decision. The High Court while granting two weeks time to ECI and Returning Officer, stressed the need to consider the criterion on which the decision to hold election to fill up a vacancy of Legislative Assembly seat for a short period of time could be taken and need to exercise discretion reasonably.
The High Court will also consider whether the present case will result in interference in election process or only postponement of election process and interpretation of provision to section 151-A of RP Act particularly when general elections are round the corner. Adv Shreerang Bhandarkar appeared for the petitioner. Adv Neerja Chaube (ECI), Adv Jaimini Kasat (State Election Commission), AGP Nitin Rode (Returning Officer) represented respondents.