Bombay High Court dismisses petition alleging discrepancies in Maharashtra Assembly elections

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition demanding that the results of last year’s Maharashtra Assembly elections be set aside due to alleged discrepancies in the polling process.

A bench of Justice GS Kulkarni and Arif Doctor refused to entertain the writ petition filed by a man named Chetan Chandrakant Ahire. The court said that the petition deserved to be dismissed with costs, but it refrained from doing so.

The petitioner claimed that about 76 lakh votes, or 6.8% of the total votes, were polled after the official closing time of 6 pm. He contended that these votes were illegal as the Election Commission had no data about them.

Ahire, in his petition filed through advocate Prakash Ambedkar, alleged discrepancies between the number of votes polled and the number of votes counted in over 90 constituencies. He claimed that returning officers neglected Election Commission norms by not reporting these alleged discrepancies.

The petitioner sought an order setting aside the results across all 288 Assembly constituencies in the state due to alleged violations in the polling process. He also sought the details of the voting tokens after 6 pm, a constituency-wise breakdown of votes cast outside official hours and the revocation of election certificates for successful...

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