SC stays Gujarat HC order setting aside minister’s election

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 15

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Gujarat High Court order setting aside state minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama’s 2017 election from the Dholka Assembly constituency for electoral malpractices.

A Bench headed by Justice Mohan M Shantangoudar asked Congress candidate Ashwin Rathod — on whose Chudasama’s election was set aside by the HC — to respond to the petition.

On behalf of Chudasama, senior advocates Harish Salve and NK Kaul argued that the HC should have examined the Returning Officer to see if the rejection of 429 votes was done properly or not. In his appeal, Chudasama urged the top court to stay the operation of the HC’s order till pendency of his appeal in the top court.

The HC order came after Congress candidate Ashwin Rathod challenged Chudasama’s election from Dholka by a margin of mere 327 votes. The court held that Returning Officer “illegally rejected” 429 postal ballots during the counting of votes, while the victory margin was only 327. It had rejected Chudasama’s request for a stay to enable him to file an appeal.

Allahabad HC bans azan by Loudspeaker

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court on Friday set aside the orders of the district administrations of Ghazipur, Farukhabad and Hathras prohibiting azan in mosques in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, but disallowed the call for prayer through loudspeakers. The Division Bench of Justice Shashi Kant Gupta and Justice Ajit Kumar passed a 27-page order while hearing a PIL of Ghazipur Lok Sabha MP Afzal Ansari and two others via videoconferencing. TNS