Bombay HC dismisses Uddhav Sena leader Amol Kirtikar’s plea challenging Ravindra Waikar’s win in Lok Sabha elections

He also alleged that EC officials allowed the use of mobile phones inside the counting area and let impersonators cast 333 tendered votes. Tendered votes are cast when a voter finds that another person has already voted in his/her name. Such tendered votes are submitted using Form 17-B and recorded on ballot paper.

Kirtikar’s plea claimed, “Petitioner is aggrieved due to improper reception of void votes cast by 333 impersonators in place of genuine electors, along with breach of rules/orders, pertaining to the counting process, by EC officials, which has materially affected the outcome of the election results leading to the petitioner’s defeat by a narrow margin of forty-eight (48) votes, despite getting a total of 4,52,596 votes (4,51,095 EVM votes + 1,501 postal ballot votes).”

“The high-handed hastiness and palpable arbitrariness on the part of the Returning Officer can also be seen from the act that she completely ignored provisions of the 2023 Handbook, which provides for a candidate’s right to file for a second recount, particularly when the margin between the first two candidates are narrow. In the present case, there could not have been a narrower margin than 1 vote,” Kirtikar claimed through advocate Amit A Karande.

However, senior advocate Anil Y Sakhare for Waikar argued that Kirtikar’s plea lacked merit and sought its dismissal, stating that the petitioner failed to show how the tendered votes favoured the winning candidate.