The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 3) rejected a fresh plea by former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel seeking a preliminary ruling on limitation in the election petition challenging his 2023 election from Patan, and said the trial must proceed, Verdictum reported.

Source: Verdictum

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana expressed displeasure over attempts to delay the trial and stressed that election petitions must be decided within a reasonable timeframe. “Let the trial proceed. You are delaying as much as possible. You will have a decision,” Justice Mohana told senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tankha, who appeared for Bhupesh Baghel.

The dispute stems from the 2023 Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, in which Bhupesh Baghel won the Patan seat with 95,438 votes against BJP candidate Vijay Baghel's 75,715 votes, Bar and Bench reported. Vijay Baghel's election petition alleges — as an allegation yet to be decided on evidence — that Bhupesh Baghel violated the statutory 48-hour silence period under Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, by holding a rally/roadshow on November 16, 2023, and seeks annulment of his election.

Source: Bar and Bench

Bhupesh Baghel's objection concerns the 45-day limitation period under Section 81 of the Act: Sibal argued the period from the declaration of results expired on January 17, 2024, while Vijay Baghel's affidavit bore the date January 22, 2024, so the petition was barred by limitation and should have been rejected at the threshold.

The Chhattisgarh High Court had on October 13 dismissed Bhupesh Baghel's application seeking a separate preliminary adjudication on limitation. The Supreme Court had earlier, on September 28, declined to interfere with his challenge to the election petition.

Upholding the High Court order, the bench held that limitation is a mixed question of fact and law which could not be turned into a preliminary roadblock, and that allowing it would only delay proceedings further, LawChakra reported. The Court expressed no view on the merits of the election petition, which will now proceed to trial before the High Court.

Source: LawChakra