Mumbai: Bombay high court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) that sought restoration of candidates for BMC elections whose nominations were rejected for failure to furnish documents and various no objection certificates (NOCs) sought by the returning officers.The PIL by Mozam Ali Mir, a Bandra East resident, sought directions to the State Election Commission (SEC) to restore nomination forms of various aspirants across wards 1 to 227 in Mumbai and alleged the rejection was to “oblige the ruling party” by seeking documents not mandated by the SEC guidelines.The rejections were mostly on grounds that their affidavits or the “question answer sheets” were not in proper formats, or for failure to furnish clearances from 5 departments, including police, water, tax, sewerage and the estate department. The demand for a no objection certificate was “arbitrary, unreasonable and violative of Article 14 (right to equality)”, the petitioner, represented by advocates A A Siddiquie and Moin Chowdhari, argued before the Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad.For the civic commissioner cum district election officer, Bhushan Gagrani, advocate Joel Carlos opposed the PIL and sought its dismissal on a preliminary objection to its maintainability. Carlos said the petitioner had no personal knowledge of the actions of the returning officers, nor was he a candidate, nor did he fill a nomination form, thus questioning how he could have any grievance.The HC heard both sides and also considered the PIL and a compilation submitted by Mir, which included the notifications issued by the SEC last month. The HC cited the Supreme Court order which said the BMC election ought to be completed by Jan 31, and its schedule was not to be interfered with, before observing there was no public interest reason made out to interfere and hence dismissed the PIL.The HC said granting the prayers in the PIL would amount to granting relief against the statute and hence dismissed it.
