On 9 March, the Madhya Pradesh High Court nullified the election of Congress MLA Mukesh Malhotra from the Vijaypur Assembly constituency. The Court held that suppression or incomplete disclosure of criminal cases amounts to suppression of material facts, which interferes with the free exercise of electoral rights. The single judge Bench of the MP High Court led by Justice G S Ahluwalia observed that such suppression deprives voters of the ability to make an informed choice during voting.
The election petition in the High Court was filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Ramniwas Rawat, who challenged Malhotra’s election from Assembly Constituency Vijaypur in Sheopur district in the November 2024 by election.
Background of the by election
The by election took place in November 2024 after Rawat, who had earlier been elected to the MP Legislative Assembly on a Congress ticket in the 2023 election, resigned from the Assembly and joined the BJP. Polling was conducted on 13 November 2024, and the result was declared on 23 November 2024. Congress candidate Malhotra was declared elected from the seat.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Mukesh Malhotra had secured 1,00,469 votes and Ramniwas Rawat had secured 93,105 votes during the by election.
Later, Rawat approached the High Court seeking that Malhotra’s election be declared void and that he himself be declared the duly elected candidate. In his election petition, Rawat stated that Malhotra failed to fully disclose his criminal cases in the affidavit required to be filed in Form 26 along with the nomination papers.
He argued that there were six criminal cases registered against Malhotra. However, in the affidavit he disclosed incomplete details regarding two pending cases and completely omitted four other cases.
Court on suppression of material facts
In its judgment, the Court noted that the stage of framing charges in a criminal case is not a mere formality but a stage where the court applies its judicial mind to determine whether the material raises grave suspicion requiring trial.
“Non-disclosure of complete information regarding the stage of pending cases, by itself, would amount to suppression of a material fact, resulting in corrupt practice,” the Court observed.
It held that Malhotra failed to prove that the wrong declaration regarding non framing of charges was a bona fide mistake and had knowingly suppressed material information which misled the voters. Accordingly, the High Court declared Malhotra’s election void. As Rawat had secured the next highest number of votes, he was declared the duly elected MLA from Vijaypur.
