Bombay high court allows disqualified corporator to re-contest the Bhiwandi municipal polls

According to rules, Nooruddin Nizamuddin Ansari was not supposed to re-contesting for the next six years.

The Bombay high court has granted relief to a Samajwadi Party corporator and permitted him to file his nomination for the upcoming Bhiwandi municipal polls despite the fact that he was disqualified in 2013.

A bench led by Justice KK Tated granted relief to Ansari, who had filed his nomination as the Samajwadi Party candidate in the upcoming elections at Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation. (HT)

According to rules, Nooruddin Nizamuddin Ansari was not supposed to re-contesting for the next six years.

A bench led by Justice KK Tated granted relief to Ansari, who had filed his nomination as the Samajwadi Party candidate in the upcoming elections at Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation.

Ansari’s nomination was rejected by the returning officer after it came to light that in May 2013, he had been a corporator from the Congress party and had been disqualified for defying the party whip.

While his term as the Congress corporator would have come to an end in April 2017, earlier last year, the state government implemented an amendment that said if a councillor or member of a political party was disqualified from his or her post, he or she would not hold the same post for six years from the date of disqualification.

Ansari, however, approached the high court through his counsel, advocate S M Gorwadkar, claiming that since his disqualification had come into effect in 2013, three years before the amendment, the six-year rule did not apply to his case.

While the state election commission opposed Ansari’s plea in the court, arguing that the “court must not interfere in the issue,” the vacation bench noted that the issue needed further examination and so, the candidate be allowed to contest the elections.