VINOD PUNDLIKRAO CHINCHALKAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Writ Petition No.14420 of 2025 not on board. Taken on board.

(2.) The present group of petitions preferred under Article 226 of the Constitution raises a common challenge to the decisions of the State Election Commission, Maharashtra ( hereinafter referred to as "the Commission"), by which the commission has postponed the elections of several Nagar Panchayats and Nagar Parishads, and in some cases the elections of selected constituencies within a ward are to be held on 20/12/2025. The impugned decisions were decided on the ground that in several constituencies where the nominations forms of the candidates have been rejected, statutory appeals have not been taken by the competent authority on or before 22/12/2025, and therefore, an opportunity of withdrawal of candidature from the election fray was not possible to be provided to such candidates whose appeal have been allowed and they have been permitted to contest the elections. In few cases the commission has observed that the hearing of the appeal is still not concluded as well as in some cases the written order of the competent authority has not been obtained. The commission has felt that such eventuality thereby deprive such candidates of an adequate and meaningful opportunity to exercise its statutory right of withdrawal.

(3.) The petitioners have submitted that the action of the Commission postponing the elections at the very fag end of the election process i.e. just 72 hours before the date of voting is an arbitrary act as the Commission was well within the knowledge of the statutory timelines governing scrutiny, appeal and withdrawal of nominations. They assert that the power of postponing the elections is not unguided and must have been exercised in exceptional circumstances. In the present case, the Commission's conduct is neither proportional nor constitutionally justified.