Mumbai, July 2, 2026: The Bombay High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by eight members of the Asiatic Society challenging the decision to exclude them from the voters' list for the Society's managing committee elections scheduled for July 4, holding that no case was made out to entertain the plea.
Justice N.J. Jamadar rejected the petition, observing that the members had applied for membership after the cut-off date fixed by the Charity Commissioner and declined to interfere at this stage.
Members Challenge Voters' List
The petition, led by trade union leader Vivek Monteiro, challenged a communication rejecting their objections to the draft voters' list. The petitioners argued that while they had been accepted as valid members of the Society, they had been denied the right to vote on the ground that their membership applications were incomplete.
Senior Advocate J.P. Sen, appearing for the petitioners, argued, “The Charity Commissioner has said I am a valid member. But says I can't vote. There is no reason for that.”
He contended that once the Society had accepted them as members, it could not later rely on alleged deficiencies in their application forms to deny them voting rights.
“Having accepted me as a member, what is the reason for not letting me vote? If the application form was incomplete, then I was not a member. But that is not the case,” Sen submitted.
Court Declines Interference
Additional Government Pleader Jyoti Chavan opposed the plea, raising a preliminary objection that the issue had already been decided in earlier rounds of litigation.
She argued that the managing committee had continued beyond its legal tenure and therefore could not have admitted new members after the election process had commenced.
Counsel for the Asiatic Society also argued that applications received after September 27, 2025, were not eligible for inclusion in the electoral roll prepared for the 2025 election process. The court was told that one of the petitioners had applied for membership on October 2, 2025, after the cut-off date.
In its order, the court noted that the petitioners had sought inclusion in the voters' list despite having applied after the cut-off date fixed by the Charity Commissioner. “Thus, at this stage, no case is made out for entertaining the petition. Petition is dismissed,” Justice Jamadar held.
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Earlier Petitions Also Rejected
This is the third petition arising from the Asiatic Society election dispute to be dismissed by the High Court. Earlier, the court had upheld the Charity Commissioner's March orders superseding the Society's managing and scrutinising committees and appointing an ad hoc committee to oversee its administration and conduct fresh elections.
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