HC to decide on NCP leaders’ petition today

MUMBAI : The Bombay high court (HC) will pass orders in the applications filed by arrested Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh, seeking temporary release on June 20 to vote for the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) elections on Friday.

Alternatively, they sought police escort to take them to the Vidhan Bhavan between 9 am and 6 pm so they could exercise their franchise.

Senior advocate Amit Desai, appearing for Malik, informed the single-judge bench of justice NJ Jamadar that his client was not seeking bail, but was merely seeking directions for being escorted to the voting venue.

While referring to the discretionary powers of the HC, Desai submitted that though courts did not interfere in political processes, but as it was a question of allowing democratic process to continue, hence as section 62 (5) of the Representation of the People Act did not restrain the HC from passing orders to facilitate the process of voting, it should allow the applicant to vote.

Desai added that if Malik’s vote was invalid, it was the prerogative of the Returning Officer to declare it so it can’t be used as an excuse to curtail Malik’s right to vote.

Advocate Vikram Chaudhari, appearing for Deshmukh, said that the application was not adversarial and hence the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) opposition was questionable. Chaudhari submitted that he was only seeking release for a short period so that his client could go and exercise his franchise and the HC had the discretion to permit it.

On its part, the ED submitted that the Representation of People Act had clearly refuted the right to vote for prisoners.

Responding to a query, ASG Singh stated that the question before the bench was not whether the citizens were being deprived of their rights but the question was of the conduct of the applicants which put them in prison.