Mumbai: Bombay HC on Tuesday rejected Sena (UBT) functionary Rajan Vichare’s election petition challenging the victory of Naresh Mhaske, Sena’s candidate, from Thane in the 2024 LS polls. The plea failed to disclose a cause of action and suffered from an “incurable defect”, held Justice Riyaz Chagla.Vichare, who had also contested from the constituency, claimed that Mhaske’s election affidavit didn’t disclose his conviction in a rioting case and, hence, his victory should be set aside. Justice Chagla observed that Mhaske “was not required to disclose his conviction of a criminal offence, particularly where the conviction did not result in imprisonment of one year or more”. Senior counsel Darius Khambata, representing Vichare, sad Mhaske had written “not applicable” in the form against the information sought from candidates about cases and convictions. He said the application, thus, amounted to “suppression of the fact”. He cited an SC direction that every candidate ought to be called to make substantive disclosures covering his/her criminal antecedents. He said ECI prescribed an affidavit in 2008 requiring candidates to disclose details of not only convictions but also acquittals or discharges in cases. For Mhaske, senior counsel Vikram Nankani sought dismissal of the plea on the grounds that there was no case made out. He said Mhaske was required to make the disclosure of his conviction only if it resulted in imprisonment of a year or more. He said SC has held that in the absence of any proper pleading that a poll result has been materially affected, the election petition can’t be allowed to proceed further and deserves to be rejected at the threshold itself.
