HC issues summons to Waikar on petition by UBT candidate over LS seat

The Bombay High Court on Monday issued summons to Shiv Sena's Ravindra Waikar on a petition filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar challenging his election from Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat.

Kirtikar had lost to Waikar, who is part of the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, by a narrow margin of 48 votes. While Waikar got 452644 votes, Kirtikar garnered 452596 votes. In his election petition filed earlier this month, Kirtikar sought HC to set aside Waikar's election as "null and void".

Kirtikar sought that he be declared as elected from the constituency. A single bench of Justice Sandeep Marne on Monday issued summons to Waikar and the 19 other respondents (remaining candidates from the constituency) and posted the matter for hearing on September 2. "Issue summons to respondents returnable on September 2," the court said. Kirtikar, in his plea, claimed that on the counting day itself he had filed an application seeking recount of the votes as there was discrepancy.

There were various glaring and serious lapses on the part of poll officials deputed to carry out the counting process, which materially affected the results, he claimed in the plea. "The Election Petitioner (Kirtikar) is aggrieved on account of the improper reception of void votes cast by 333 impersonators in place of genuine voters, along with breach of rules/orders pertaining to the counting process by ECI officials, which has materially affected the outcome of the election results," the plea said.

The returning officer showed "high-handed hastiness and palpable arbitrariness" at the time of the counting of votes, said Kirtikar and sought the court to summon the video recordings of the entire counting process while hearing his plea. This is the second petition against Waikar's election.

Last month, Bharat Shah from the Hindu Samaj Party, also a candidate from the same constituency, had filed a petition against Waikar. Shah's plea came up for hearing last week before a division bench, which said Shah would have to file an election petition and seek hearing before the appropriate bench.