Gujarat High Court
Chief Electoral Officer & 2 vs Valjibhai Poonamchandra Danicha & on 11 March, 2014
Author: S.R.Brahmbhatt
Bench: S.R.Brahmbhatt
O/OJCA/117/2014 ORDER
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 117 of 2014
In
ELECTION PETITION NO. 1 of 2009
With
CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 119 of 2014
In
ELECTION PETITION NO. 1 of 2009
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CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER & 2....Applicant
Versus
VALJIBHAI POONAMCHANDRA DANICHA & 1....Respondents
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Appearance:
MR BIREN A VAISHNAV, ADVOCATE for the Applicant No. 1 - 3
MR ASHISH H SHAH, ADVOCATE for the Respondent No. 1
MR BY MANKAD, ADVOCATE for the Respondent No. 2
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CORAM: HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE S.R.BRAHMBHATT
Date : 11/03/2014
COMMON ORAL ORDER
Learned counsel Shri Vaishnav appearing for the applicants has invited this Court's attention to the prayers made in these two applications and submitted that in the earlier identical matter this Court on 07.03.2014 passed similar orders which have been prayed in these applications also and he submitted that learned counsel for the opponents has no objection if such orders are passed.
Learned counsel appearing for the parties Shri Mankad in Election Petition No.1 of 2009 and Shri Harsh Parikh for Shri A.H.Shah, learned counsel for the petitioner have also concurred in the submission of Shri Vaishnav that they have no objection if the orders prayed for are Page 1 of 3 O/OJCA/117/2014 ORDER passed.
Paragraph Nos.3, 4 and 5 of order dated 07.03.2014, passed in Civil Application No.124 of 2014 In Election Petition No.6 of 2013 are reproduced hereinbelow;
3. The Applicant state that in view of the imminent Lok Sabha Elections due, the Applicants have received instruction from the Elections Commission of India that in Election Petitions wherein challenge is not directly related to EVMs for instance Elections are not challenged within a request for recounting of votes an Application be moved for permission of this Honourable Court to seek permission to take out EVMs from the safe custody of the District Election Officer, Applicant No.2 so that preparatory steps to check the availability of such EVMs and to undertake first level checking of such EVMs by the Engineers of ECIL/BEL for their proper functioning can be done and so that these EVMs can be released for use in the forthcoming Lok Sabha Elections. According to the Provisions of law EVMs are kept in the custody of the District Election Officer of the concerned District, Applicant No.2 who is responsible for the safety and security of all EVMs, which are kept in a secured warehouse/strong room.
4. The Applicants had in earlier point of time moved application for seeking permission form the Honourable Court to open strong rooms and carry out physical verification of EVMs to install into the EVM Tracking Software in order to strengthen the security of EVMs by entry of ID number of the BU and CU on the metallic strip at the back of the unit and from the bar code sticker pasted on the units. The Honourable Court had granted such permission to install the EVM Tracking Software into the EVMs. The Applicants state that the Election in the present Election Petition is challenged on the ground that the Election Expenditure incurred by Respondent No.1 in excess of ceiling limit. The number of Ballot Units and Control Units concerned this Petition are 275 Ballot Units and 275 Control Units respectively.
5. The Applicant state that looking to the imminent Lok Sabha Elections the EVMs in the custody of respective DEO and connected to this Petition wherein the challenge in the Petition does not pertain directly to recount/counting and Page 2 of 3 O/OJCA/117/2014 ORDER therefore EVMs are not involved, however they are in custody in accordance with the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. Permission therefore by way of this Application is sought to seek release of EVMs so that necessary preparatory steps to check the availability of such EVMs and to undertake first level checking of such EVMs by the Engineers of ECIL/BEL for their proper functioning can be done and these EVMs can be released for use in the forthcoming Lok Sabha Election 2014."
In view of this, the prayer in terms of Para 7(A) in both the applications are granted. The applications are disposed of accordingly.
(S.R.BRAHMBHATT, J.) Pankaj Page 3 of 3