Guv cannot be made respondent

Aurangabad: The Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court comprising Justice Mangesh Patil and Justice Y G Khobragade accepted the arguments that Governor who holds the Constitutional post cannot be made respondent in any court.

According to details, Lata Sonawne (earlier in Shiv Sena, now Shinde Group) was elected from Chopda Assembly Constituency in 2019 which was reserved for Scheduled Caste and Tribe candidates.

Petitioner Jagdishchandra Walvi (NCP candidate) who lost the election filed an election petition in the High Court. The petition is pending with the court.

Despite this, Walvi made a complaint ST Caste Verification Committee of Dhule stating that Lata Sonawne does not belong to ‘Tokre Koli’ an ST community.

The Caste Verification Committee cancelled the ST certificate of Lata while challenging the decision of the committee in court. The HC had rejected her petition. Even, a special leave petition filed by Lata in Supreme Court was rejected. The certificate of Lata stands cancelled.

Walvi requested the Governor to disqualify Lata as per the provisions in the Constitution. However, Governor has not taken any decision on it yet.

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Approach HC

As the Governor has not taken any decision, Walvi filed a writ petition in the HC.

The Governor, the Election Commission of India and the State Election Commission were made respondents in the case. But, Lata was not made respondent in it. So, Lata Soanawne filed an intervention petition through adv Mahesh Deshmukh requesting the court to make her respondents and allow her to present her side. The court accepted the petition.

Giving reference to a Supreme Court judgement, adv Deshmukh argued that an election petition is the only alternative if an Assembly member’s ineligibility is declared before the election. Advocates Umesh Geete and Vasant Bholankar assisted adv Deshmukh.

He also argued that the Governor has the right to declare MLA ineligible if one is ineligible after the election. Accepting the arguments, the court rejected the writ petition of Walvi as the election petition is pending