The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition alleging serious discrepancies in the conduct of the Maharashtra Assembly elections held on November 20, 2024 especially the unusually large percentage of votes cast post the 6PM (voting hours).
A Bench of Justice GS Kulkarni and Justice Arif Doctor refused to entertain the writ petition filed by Mumbai resident Chetan Chandrakant Ahire (petitioner).The Bench said that the petition wasted the time of the Court, but refrained from imposing costs."In the light of the above facts, we We have no doubt that this petition needs to be rejected. It is accordingly rejected. A whole day of this Court was wasted in hearing the petition. Although costs should be imposed on them but we refrain from doing so," the Court stated.
The petitioner moved the Court seeking a declaration that the results declared across all 288 assembly constituencies in the state be set aside due to alleged violations in the polling process.The petition filed by Ahire highlighted an "unusually high number" of votes cast after the 6 PM official polling time, specifically claiming over 75 lakh votes were recorded post-deadline.
Additionally, he pointed to discrepancies between polled and counted votes in more than 90 constituencies.The petitioner through his advocate Prakash Ambedkar further contended that the returning officers neglected Election Commission of India (ECI) guidelines by not reporting these apparent mismatches.
Among the reliefs sought were details of post-6 PM voting tokens, a constituency-wise breakdown of votes cast outside official hours and the revocation of election certificates for successful candidates.A whole day of this Court was wasted in hearing the petition, it was observed.Senior Advocate Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, representing the Election Commission, argued that Ahire lacked the locus to challenge State-wide results in a writ petition. Further, he argued that Ahire failed to include winning candidates as parties.
Similarly, Advocate Uday Warunjikar, representing the Union of India, told the Court that the petitioner should have filed an election petition under the Representation of the People Act within the 45-day window following the results. Instead, Ahire chose to file a writ petition outside this permitted timeframe and without designating it as a public interest litigation, despite its broad public implications.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has formally written to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on his allegations of rigging in the 2024 Maharashtra polls, saying all polls are held by it strictly as per laws passed by Parliament and rules. It also emphasised that the entire poll exercise involves thousands of personnel, including booth-level agents appointed by political parties.
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