Suspension of the Supreme Court for the Minister of Gujarat, Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, whose election was canceled

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court suspended an order from the Gujarat High Court canceling the election of Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, the state’s Minister of Education and Law, as an MLA in 2017 for negligence and manipulation. The court also issued a notice to congressional leader Aswhin Rathod, who had lost that election by just 327 votes.

“In many of these cases, we maintain the order of the Superior Court,” the Supreme Court said in its ruling.

At the hearing, Chudasama’s lawyers argued that the Gujarat High Court should have asked for the 429 postal ballots that had been “illegally rejected” during the counting process to see if their rejection was in accordance with the rules.

Congress leader Kapil Sibal, in defense of his party colleague, said that if the votes were not counted first, they could not be declared rejected.

The higher court later said it was “inclined to suspend the order,” something Mr. Sibal objected to. The court overturned that, saying: “In many of these cases, we uphold the order of the Superior Court.”

Chudasama, 70, moved to the superior court a day after the Gujarat High Court declared his election “void,” saying that the returning officer, Dhaval Jani, had been “in gloves” with the BJP leader. and that 429 postal ballots had been “illegally rejected.”

Ashwin Rathod of Congress had filed the petition, alleging that Chudasama indulged in corrupt practices and violated “many mandatory instructions from the Election Commission” at various stages of the voting process, especially during the vote count.

In his ruling, the Gujarat High Court judge, Paresh Upadhyay, who also rejected Mr. Chudasama’s request for suspension in order to file an appeal, said that the rejection of the ballots, the incorrect procedures adopted for counting votes and Mr. Chudasama’s “corrupt practices” materially affected the outcome of the election.

Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel had then said the High Court order was “shocking” and said it would be challenged in the Supreme Court.

Gujarat Congress President Amit Chavda praised the order of the high court, calling it “a victory for the truth and defeat in the way the BJP misuses power and government offices for its benefit.”

With contributions from PTI