Court junks corruption charges against Shinde Sena MLA over 2024 Maharashtra polls

The Bombay High Court has rejected an election petition filed against Shiv Sena MLA Prakash Rajaram Surve, who was elected from the Magathane Assembly constituency, on the ground that the petition lacked material facts and failed to disclose a valid cause of action.

The petition, filed by Udesh Shantaram Patekar of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction), alleged corrupt practices by Surve, including bribery, distribution of pamphlets, violation of the Model Code of Conduct and inducement of voters through the promise of a community hall construction worth Rs 1 crore.

While rejecting the petition, the bench of Justice Sandeep V Marne said, "Election Petition is not a remedy in common law or an action in equity. Being a statutory remedy, strict compliance with the provisions of the act is mandatory. The allegation of corrupt practice is not only serious but constitutes a punishable offence under the act. Therefore, levelling of allegations of corrupt practice cannot be done in a casual manner."

The bench observed that although the petition averred production of four video recordings to support two allegations of corrupt practices, what was actually produced before the court was multiple files in MP4 and JPEG format by copying them into a single pendrive.

Justice Marne said, "This casual approach on the part of the petitioner does not meet the strict requirements of pleadings. The Petitioner cannot dump multiple materials on a copiable electronic device and leave it for the returned candidate to identify the files copied therein. In my view, the election petitioner has failed to make correct and necessary averments relating to the video recordings and has also failed to supply to the returned candidate all the attachments with sufficient material particulars and identity, making the petition liable for rejection."

The bench noted that the allegations in the petition were vague and lacked connection to Surve. The petition had failed to specify how the alleged acts materially affected the election result, said the bench. Mere usage of terms like "consent" and "conspiracy" without supporting facts did not meet the legal threshold required to substantiate corrupt practices under Section 123 of the RP act, said the court.

Surve won the November 2024 election with over 1.05 lakh votes, while the petitioner was the runner-up with about 47,000 votes.

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