Education Minister poll case: Gujarat High Court to hear plea to produce ballot votes

The Gujarat High Court on Friday clarified that it will hear the application moved by Congress leader Ashwin Rathod seeking the court's direction to authorities to produce certain EVMs and all the ballot votes in the controversial Dholka Assembly election in which Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama claimed victory.

The single-judge bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay scheduled the hearing of the application on October 4, when both Chudasama and Rathod are likely to argue on the issue.

The court's decision on this application will be important as one of the major contentions of Rathod is that the minister won the Assembly election by a thin margin of 327 votes, only after the returning officer (RO) Dhaval Jani rejected 429 votes through postal ballots, a number greater than the winning margin. The Congress leader has also contended that the rejection of the 429 votes by the RO was illegal and resulted in Chudasama's victory.

Interestingly, the contesting parties had earlier too submitted their arguments to the court, but the court in its August 7 order deferred its decision on the application after the minister opposed the same on multiple grounds.

During the hearing on Friday, the court questioned the respondents in the case, including Jani and election observer Vinita Bohra, on whether they want to lead any evidence in the case. The respondents clarified that they have already filed a closing purshis, which is a written statement clarifying that they do not want to lead evidence or cross-examine any witness in the case.