Former home minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday filed an interim application in the Bombay high court seeking that he be released on bail for a day to cast his vote in the state legislative council elections scheduled to be held on June 20.
A single-judge bench of justice N J Jamadar listed the plea for hearing on June 15.
Meanwhile, the HC refused to hear the petition filed by state minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Nawab Malik seeking police escort to allow him to vote in the June 10 Rajya Sabha elections as the plea had become infructuous. Malik was asked to file a fresh petition for being allowed to vote in the June 20 polls.
The application of Deshmukh sought that he be released on bail for a day or alternatively he be provided with police escort to accompany him to Vidhan Bhavan between 9am and 6pm on June 20 so that he could exercise his franchise.
Last week, Deshmukh was denied bail by a special court who said that under the Representation of People’s Act not only a convict but also an undertrial was not permitted to exercise their right to vote and hence, he could not be released on bail. Deshmukh then approached the HC on June 9 but his petition was not mentioned due to paucity of time.
Malik had also been denied bail by the same court after which he approached the HC on June 9. However, justice P D Naik asked his lawyers to approach the appropriate bench. On June 10, the matter was mentioned before justice Bharati Dangare. However, she refused to hear the application as it meant setting aside the order of the lower court and the petition should be moved before the appropriate bench.
On Monday, when Malik’s lawyers Taraq Sayed and Kushal Mor sought a hearing of the same petition and informed the bench that an amendment should be made to change the date, justice Naik said as the plea was for the June 10 elections, just amending the date would not suffice as the petition had become infructuous. The bench then directed the advocates to file a fresh petition. The advocates then sought liberty to withdraw the previous petition and said a fresh plea would be filed on Tuesday, which the court accepted.