The Gujarat High Court, on Friday, set-aside the election of BJP’s Dwarka MLA Pabubha Manek. The diktat came from the single-judge bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay in an election petition filed by Congress leader Meraman Ahir challenging the seventh consecutive victory of Manek in the 2017 assembly elections from the Dwarka constituency.

Although the counsel for Manek pleaded for a stay on the verdict for four weeks to enable him to approach the Supreme Court, the same was denied by Justice Upadhyay. The high court also refused to entertain the plea of Ahir to declare him as the elected candidate from Dwarka. With the court refusing any relief to Manek, the Election Commission will now have to declare a by-election for the vacant seat.

As per the case details, the result of the election held in December 2017 was challenged by Ahir on the ground that the proposer of Manek had not mentioned the name of the constituency on his nomination form, which renders his nomination invalid and void. Ahir had also submitted that he raised an objection against the same before the returning officer, who rejected it.

The various issues that the court delved into while adjudicating the case include whether Ahir can prove that the proposer did not mention the name of the constituency on Manek's nomination form; whether election results were affected by improper acceptance of defective form; whether Manek's victory should be held void; and whether Ahir should be declared the winner in the election.

Notably, after a thorough trial that continued for months, the court had reserved its verdict on the election petition on February 25 and the verdict was finally pronounced on Friday.