Panaji, Apr 8 The Bombay High Court on Wednesday declared as "null and void" the Election Commission of India's notification for the Ponda Assembly byelection, effectively cancelling the April 9 poll, a decision the Congress said it would challenge in the Apex court.
Justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit Jamsandekar of the Goa bench of the HC passed the order on petitions filed by two voters who had challenged the validity of the notification on the ground that less than one year of the current assembly's term is left.
The byelection was necessitated by the death of former Goa minister Ravi Naik in October last year. The ECI had notified polling for April 9 and counting on May 4.
The petitioners argued that under the Representation of the People Act, holding a byelection is not mandatory if the remainder of the Assembly's term is less than one year. The new MLA would serve only for a few months, they pointed out.
Speaking at a press conference here, Congress Central Working Committee member Girish Chodankar said the party will file a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the HC order.
"We wanted to challenge the order immediately but the detailed order is yet to be uploaded by the High Court (on its website)," he said.
The ruling BJP, fearing defeat, connived with the ECI to get the byelection cancelled, Chodankar alleged. The poll body announced the bypoll late, five months after Naik's death, he pointed out.
Both the petitioners before the HC were sympathisers of the BJP which had sensed that it would lose the election, Chodankar claimed.
"The BJP changed the game when they knew that they can't win the game," he said.
