Gujarat High Court exposes issues in petition challenging Pabubha Manek's election

The Gujarat High Court has framed the issues for adjudicating a petition filed by Congress leader Meraman Ahir challenging the seventh consecutive victory of BJP's Pabubha Manek in the 2017 assembly elections from the Dwarka constituency. The single judge bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay has brought forth the issues and decided to go ahead with the trial by summoning the witnesses in the case.

The election result was challenged by Ahir on the ground that the proposer of Manek had not mentioned the name of the constituency on his nomination form, which renders his nomination invalid and void.

The issues that the court will delve into while adjudicating the case includes whether Ahir can prove that the proposer did not mention the name of the constituency on Manek's nomination form; whether this required rejection of the form by the returning officer; whether the returning officer's rejection of Ahir's objection was illegal; whether election results were affected by improper acceptance of defective form; whether Manek's victory should be held void; and whether Ahir should be declared the winner in the election.

Meanwhile, after framing of the issues, Justice Upadhyay has posted the matter on January 16, when it will be taken up for further hearing.