Rajya Sabha Poll: Gujarat High Court summons S Jaishankar and Jugalji Thakor

The Gujarat High Court on Friday summoned External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Jugalji Thakor to remain present before it  on September 27 in connection with multiple petitions filed against them by Congress leaders challenging their Rajya Sabha poll victory. 

In all, seven election petitions were filed by Congress leaders against the poll victory of the BJP candidates. Gaurav Pandya and Chandrika Chudasama, who unsuccessfully contested against Jaishankar and Thakor, had filed two petitions each, whereas the leader of opposition in the state Assembly Paresh Dhanani had filed three petitions.

The court had questioned the maintainability of multiple petitions filed by the Congress leaders since the beginning.  Their counsel, BM Mangukiya, had argued at length citing the reasons for filing so many petitions.

When the petitions were taken up for hearing on Friday, the bench asked Mangukiya to clarify, if he had anything else to add to his arguments. The lawyer clarified that he does not want to add anything. Thereafter, the court clarified that it is rejecting four of the seven petitions, and issuing a notice to the BJP leaders in three petitions.

The petitions retained by the court include Pandya’s petition against Jaishankar, Chudasama’s petition against Thakor, and Dhanani’s petition challenging the election of both the returned candidates. 

The petitions which were rejected include Pandya’s petition against Thakor, Chudasama’s petition against Jaishankar, and Dhanani’s two petitions separately challenging the election of the returned candidates.

“With the court issuing summons, the BJP leaders will have to appear before it on September 27, when the case will be taken up for further hearing,” Mangukiya told DNA.

By-elections for the two Rajya Sabha seats, vacated by BJP’s Amit Shah and Smriti Irani post their Lok Sabha victory, was held on July 5 in which Jaishankar and Thakor emerged as winners against Congress’s Pandya and Chudasama, respectively.

Thereafter, Pandya moved the high court challenging the poll victory of the BJP candidates on the ground that the election commission should not have held separate elections for the two seats in contravention of the constitutional norm of ‘proportional representation by a single transferable vote for Rajya Sabha elections’.

Later on, five other petitions were also filed raising the same contention. The court, however, questioned the maintainability of multiple petitions challenging the same election.

According to Mangukiya, candidates can file an election petition against the returned candidates pitted against them and cannot challenge the election of other winning candidates. 

He argued that if Pandya files one election petition challenging the election victory of one of the winners, the defense can raise objection claiming that although the entire election has been challenged, the other returned candidate is not before the court.