The court also told the minister's advocate to make the application by afternoon and clarified that he is not going to recuse from the matter and that he is not an "escapist"
State education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama was in for a rude shock on Tuesday after the Gujarat High Court took him to task for trying to question the credibility and impartiality of the court occupied with the trial of an election petition filed by rival Congress candidate Ashwin Rathod challenging his assembly poll win.
After the court was informed about the submissions made by the minister before the Supreme Court alleging that they are not getting a fair trial in the election petition, Justice Paresh Upadhyay, who is occupied with the trial, said he does not require a certificate from anybody to prove his credibility and impartiality. The judge said he was pained to hear such allegations and told the minister to make an application to the Acting Chief Justice for transfer of the case to another bench.
The court also told the minister's advocate to make the application by afternoon and clarified that he is not going to recuse from the matter and that he is not an "escapist". Following the criticism, senior advocate Shalin Mehta, appearing for Chudasama, sought the court's permission to retire from the matter. However, the court said that it was up to Mehta to decide whether he wants to argue Chudasama's case or not and it has no say in the same. Eventually, Mehta retired from the case.
Notably, the minister had moved a plea before the Supreme Court alleging that he is not getting a fair trial in the case leveling allegations against Justice Upadhyay. The apex court too rebuked the minister after which he had to withdraw the petition on Monday.
Interestingly, the minister is trying tooth and nail to stall the proceedings in the election petition of Rathod fearing that he might lose the case. As per Rathod's plea, the minister had won the state election from Dholka constituency by a wafer-thin margin of 327 votes and that too after the returning officer mysteriously rejected 429 votes through postal ballets, a number greater than the winning margin. It is the contention of Rathod that the rejection of 429 votes received through postal ballots by the returning officer was illegal and resulted in Chudasama winning the election.
Rathod has also contended that the then deputy collector of Dholka, Gaurang Prajapati, who was supposed to be the returning officer as per his designation, was removed after the election code of conduct was implemented. In place of Prajapati, one Dhavan Jani was posted at Dholka with an aim to increase Chudasama's prospects of winning the election. Another argument of Rathod is that although the standing instruction of the Election Commission of India is that the postal ballots are to be counted before counting of votes on EVMs, the same was not followed. In fact, the postal ballots were counted only after counting of the EVM votes and after knowing that there was a narrow margin between the two contesting candidates.
Meanwhile, Justice Upadhyay has went ahead with the trial with the cross-examination of Rathod held on Tuesday, which is going to continue on Wednesday as well.
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