New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved verdict on a special leave petition filed by Congress leader Ahmed Patel challenging the Gujarat high court’s order to proceed with the hearing in the election petition against him. A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud reserved verdict at the conclusion of arguments from senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi and counsel for Balwantsinh Rajput, who was defeated in the Rajya Sabha elections. In July the court gave relief to Mr. Patel by directing the HC not to proceed with the election petition filed against him after framing of issues for trial.
The BJP nominee had questioned the Election Commission’s decision to invalidate two votes by rebel Congress MLAs after the Congress party had objected. Mr. Rajput also accused Mr. Patel of indulging in corrupt practices by allegedly holding 44 MLAs captive at a resort in Bengaluru. Mr. Rajput had challenged the EC’s decision and said that once the returning officer had used his discretion to accept the two votes as valid, the EC had “no power to issue any direction to the returning officer for accepting or rejecting any vote”.
