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Bombay High Court upholds disqualification of Congress corporator for having 3 kids

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The Bombay High Court has upheld the disqualification of a corporator from Malad by a lower court on the grounds that he has three children, which goes against the rules laid down in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act.

Justice Ranjit More's decision, which went against Congress corporator Shaikh Siraj Iliyas, will now help Shiv Sena worker Vishwas Pandurang Ghadigaonkar, who had come second in the civic elections held in 2012.

The HC has though stayed its decision for four weeks to allow Ilias to approach higher courts.

Ilias and Ghadigaonkar along with 17 others had contested from ward no.30 (in Malad) in the BMC elections held on February 16, 2012. Ilias, who polled 5,269 votes, emerged as the winner, while Ghadigaonkar stood second with 4,294 votes.

Ghadigaonkar approached the small causes court contending that Ilias had three daughters and hence was not eligible to contest the elections under the MMC Act. He accused Ilias of hiding the fact that his third child was born in 2007 while filing his nomination papers.

The Sena worker referred to the birth certificate of Ilias's third child, insurance policy in taken in her name, and hospital records. While the counsel for Ilias argued that several columns in the birth certificate were unfilled and therefore such incomplete report cannot be relied upon, Ghadigaonkar's lawyer also relied upon the testimony of the hospital authorities where the delivery took place.

While the small causes court disqualified Ilias for violating the MMC Act, the Congress worker approached HC for relief.

In his order, the judge said, "I find that the learned trial court has properly appreciated the oral as well as documentary evidence on record and has rightly come to the conclusion that the petitioner has begotten third child on July 30, 2007 and therefore disqualified the petitioner from contesting the elections."

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