Bombay High Court has dismissed a petition filed by former Congress MLA Arif Naseem Khan challenging the election of Dilip Lande as Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Shiv Sena in 2019, while observing that the petition failed to plead ‘material facts’ resulting into an incomplete cause of action. Khan had lost the election by a margin of 409 votes.
Congress leader Naseem Khan files petition
Khan had filed a petition declaring the election void on grounds of commission of corrupt practices. According to Khan, there were two corrupt practices that Lande had indulged in.
Khan claimed that there were certain concocted and doctored videos of him which Lande deliberately circulated on Whatsapp which portrayed Khan as an anti-national person. Khan’s plea challenged the election on the ground that the only beneficiary from circulating the doctored video was Lande.
He further claimed that members of Shiv Sena, including its chief, Uddhav Thackeray, had addressed audiences within the prohibited period of 48 hours, which was in contravention to the Model of Conduct by the Election Commission.
Shiv Sena MLA Dilip Lande’s response
In response, Lande filed an application seeking dismissal of the petition on the ground that the plea does not disclose the cause of action for want of material facts. Cause of action means the material facts which are necessary for a party to prove its case, to show that there has been a legal injury. Material facts are facts that are important in a case for a judge to arrive at a conclusion.
Lande’s lawyer Shardul Singh had said, although in the petition Khan had averred that he would narrate the circumstances to show as to how the Shiv Sena leader had been indulged into circulating the fake video; yet no such circumstances have been narrated, except vague allegations.
Bombay HC dismisses petition against Lande
Justice Sandeep K Shinde said that the position in law was well settled that an election petition can be summarily dismissed, if the mandatory requirements of Section 83 of the Representation of the People Act to incorporate material facts are not complied with.
The Court noted that Khan had not given any material to show that it was Lande who had circulated the fake video. Justice Shinde said, “Therefore, allegations that Lande circulated the fake video to malign Khan’s reputation,
were vague and indefinite for want of related facts. As a matter of fact, Khan has not pleaded foundational facts, like source, wherefrom the fake video was procured by Lande.”
The court thus concluded that the pleadings that Lande circulated the fake video are “vague, uncertain and made in a casual manner.”
The Court also failed to understand the claim in the plea that violation of conduct by Lande could land him 409 votes without showing any link between the alleged violation of model code of conduct and the victory in the election.
“Mere ‘chance’ or ‘likelihood’ of voters being influenced by illegal campaigning would not constitute an essential fact, to contend that illegal campaigning materially affected the election result of the returned candidate”, the order stated.
Justice Shinde thus dismissed the petition as Khan’s petition failed to plead material facts resulting in an ‘incomplete cause of action’.
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Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/bombay-high-court-shiv-sena-mla-dilip-lande-congress-mla-arif-naseem-petition-rejected-1900002-2022-01-14
