Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indore Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday declined to grant interim relief to advocate Deepti Gour, who had approached the court challenging her exclusion from the final list of candidates contesting High Court Bar Association elections in Indore.
The petitioner had filed a writ petition alleging that the election committee of the Bar Association arbitrarily removed her name from the list of candidates contesting for the post of secretary in the election scheduled for January 28.
Appearing for the petitioner, counsel argued that her nomination was wrongly rejected and sought interim relief permitting her to contest the election. However, counsel for the Bar Association raised a preliminary objection on the maintainability of the petition, contending that the Bar Association does not fall within the definition of ‘State’ under Article 12 of the Constitution. Reliance was placed on judgments of the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court in support of this contention.
Opposing this, the petitioner’s counsel cited contrary judgments, including decisions of coordinate benches of the High Court, to argue that the writ petition was maintainable and that the court could intervene in the present case.
The court noted that the election process had already commenced with the issuance of the election notification on January 6, scrutiny of nomination forms on January 17 and printing of ballot papers. Referring to settled legal principles, the Bench observed that courts ordinarily refrain from granting interim relief once the election process has begun.
Relying on multiple Supreme Court and High Court precedents, the Division Bench comprising Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla and Justice Alok Awasthi held that no interim relief could be granted at this stage. Accordingly, the prayer to allow the petitioner to contest the election was rejected.
The court issued notice to the remaining respondent and decided to keep the question of maintainability open for consideration after completion of pleadings. The matter has been listed for further hearing in the week commencing February 23.
