On Monday, the Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed Congress leader Hukum Singh Karada's petition challenging his narrow loss in the 2023 assembly elections from the Shajapur seat. Karada had contested against BJP's Arun Bhimawad and lost by a margin of just 28 votes.
The court found that Karada's petition lacked specific facts and failed to meet the legal requirements outlined under Section 83(1)(a) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Karada's petition had alleged several irregularities in the election process, particularly concerning the rejection of 158 postal ballots during the vote counting. He claimed that these ballots were improperly discarded, which could have impacted the final results.
However, the Indore bench of the High Court, led by Justice Pranay Verma, dismissed these claims, stating that the arguments presented were vague and not substantiated by concrete evidence.
In the 2023 assembly elections, Karada received 98,932 votes, while Bhimawad secured 98,960 votes, leading to a close contest. Justice Verma pointed out that the election petition lacked the necessary material particulars to support the claims made.
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"From a careful, minute and meaningful perusal of the pleadings, it is evident that only general allegations were made, without backing them with the required facts and evidence," the judge stated. The court noted that no documents had been submitted to support the allegations.
The High Court further observed that the petition was drafted in such a way that the same grounds could be applied to nearly any other election dispute involving postal ballot rejections, thus lacking specificity to the Shajapur case.
The court also referred to previous Supreme Court rulings, which stipulate that a recount of votes should not be ordered without material facts being pleaded and supported by contemporaneous evidence.
The court emphasised that recounting of votes can only be authorised when a prima facie case is established, with specific facts demonstrating irregularities in the vote counting process.
It cautioned against "roving and fishing inquiries," which could not justify a recount order. As a result, the petition was dismissed, and Karada's claims of electoral irregularities were rejected.
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