Bombay High Court questions ECI on rejection of VBA candidate's nomination

The Bombay High Court on Monday questioned the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding its rejection of nomination papers filed by Aakifahmed Dafedar, a candidate from the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), for the upcoming State Assembly Elections from the Bandra West constituency [Aakifahmed Dafedar v Election Commission of India].

Dafedar's nomination papers were rejected on the grounds that they were submitted after 11 AM on October 30, the deadline for the commencement of scrutiny of nomination papers.

A bench of Justice Arif S Doctor and Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan questioned the rationale behind the 11AM deadline and asked ECI to file a short affidavit on the same.

“How did you determine that 11 AM should be the cutoff? Why not extend it to 12 or 1 PM? The working hours start at 11," the court questioned.

Dafedar had originally submitted his nomination papers on October 29, the last day for filing nominations. However, those papers were deemed incomplete due to certain missing details including critical information about criminal antecedents and financial details.

He was instructed to resubmit the corrected nomination by 11:45 AM on October 30. However, when he tried to resubmit the same within the given timeline, the same was rejected on the ground that the process of scrutiny had already begun.

During the hearing, advocate Akshay Shinde, representing the ECI, argued that Dafedar should have filed an election petition instead of a writ petition.

He emphasized that the rejection was justified because the nomination was submitted after the prescribed deadline for scrutiny, which was clearly stated as 11 AM.

Shinde presented a copy of the nomination receipt to reinforce that Dafedar was aware of this requirement.

Additionally, Shinde pointed out that the missing information in Dafedar's nomination papers rendered the submission effectively invalid since those were essential details.

In response, Dafedar’s counsel contended that the ECI's rejection was unjustified, asserting that nominations should be accepted during regular working hours rather than imposing a strict cutoff. The bench expressed skepticism about the necessity of the 11 AM deadline and posted the matter for further hearing tomorrow.

Advocate Sayed Ali Hasan with advocate Imran Ansari appeared for Aakifahmed Dafedar.

Advocate Akshay Shinde appeared for the Election Commission of India.

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