The Madhya Pradesh High Court on 9 March delivered a significant judgment concerning the Vijaypur Assembly constituency. The court nullified the election of Congress MLA Mukesh Malhotra after finding that crucial information about criminal cases against him had not been fully disclosed in his election affidavit.

The verdict came from a single judge bench of the High Court led by Justice G. S. Ahluwalia. The court carefully examined whether the candidate had provided accurate and complete information to voters before the election. The court held that when a candidate hides or only partially reveals details about pending criminal cases, it amounts to suppression of important facts. Such concealment, the court said, directly affects the ability of voters to make a well-informed decision while casting their votes.

The court also emphasized that voters have a fundamental right to know the background of candidates who contest elections. If key facts are withheld, the electoral process is affected because citizens cannot fully assess the candidate’s record before choosing their representative.

The case reached the High Court after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Ramniwas Rawat filed an election petition. Rawat challenged the victory of Mukesh Malhotra from the Vijaypur Assembly constituency located in Sheopur district. The dispute arose from the by election that was held in November 2024.

Background of the by election

The by election itself had an unusual political backdrop. Ramniwas Rawat had earlier been elected to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly in the 2023 state elections as a Congress candidate. However, after winning that seat, Rawat resigned from the Assembly and later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. His resignation created a vacancy in the Vijaypur Assembly constituency, which made it necessary to conduct a by election.

Polling for the by election took place on 13 November 2024. After the votes were counted, the results were announced on 23 November 2024. At the end of the counting process, Congress candidate Mukesh Malhotra was declared the winner of the seat.

According to official figures released by the Election Commission of India (ECI), Mukesh Malhotra received 1,00,469 votes in the contest. Ramniwas Rawat, contesting as the BJP candidate, secured 93,105 votes. These numbers gave Malhotra a lead and resulted in him being declared the elected representative from Vijaypur.

Information about election procedures, candidate affidavits and election results is maintained by the Election Commission of India and can be accessed through its official portal: https://eci.gov.in

Court case over election affidavit

After the result was announced, Ramniwas Rawat approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court with an election petition. In his petition, Rawat requested the court to declare Mukesh Malhotra’s election invalid. He further requested that since he had received the second highest number of votes, he should be declared the duly elected candidate from the constituency.

The main argument presented by Rawat in court was related to the affidavit that candidates must submit along with their nomination papers. Under election rules, every candidate must file an affidavit in Form 26 giving details about their personal background, including information about any criminal cases pending against them.

Rawat told the court that Mukesh Malhotra had not given full and correct details in this mandatory affidavit. According to Rawat’s petition, six criminal cases had been registered against Malhotra. However, the affidavit submitted during the nomination process did not contain the full details of these cases.

The petition stated that while Malhotra mentioned two pending cases in the affidavit, even those disclosures were incomplete. In addition, four other criminal cases were allegedly not mentioned at all in the affidavit submitted to the election authorities.

This, Rawat argued, meant that voters were not given complete information about the candidate’s legal background before the election took place.

Court on suppression of material facts

While delivering the judgment, the High Court carefully discussed the legal importance of disclosure in election affidavits. The court explained that the stage of framing charges in a criminal case is an important point in the legal process and cannot be treated as a minor procedural step.

The court clarified that when charges are framed, the court has already examined the available material and applied its judicial mind to determine whether there is sufficient reason to proceed with a trial. Because of this, details about whether charges have been framed in a criminal case become highly relevant information for voters.

In its observations, the court stated: “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.

The High Court further examined the explanation given by Mukesh Malhotra regarding the inaccuracies in his affidavit. However, the court found that he could not establish that the incorrect declaration about the status of charges in the cases was a genuine or accidental mistake.

Instead, the court concluded that important information had been knowingly withheld. According to the judgment, this suppression of material facts had the potential to mislead voters who relied on the affidavit while evaluating the candidate’s suitability.

Based on these findings, the Madhya Pradesh High Court declared Mukesh Malhotra’s election from the Vijaypur Assembly constituency void. Since Ramniwas Rawat had received the second highest number of votes in the by election, the court ruled that he should be recognized as the duly elected Member of the Legislative Assembly from Vijaypur.