Justice V R Datar on Monday overruled the contentions of the counsels of former Pradesh Congress Committee president Ranjit Deshmukh, Pratapsinh Mohite-Patil, who switched from the Congress to the BJP on election eve and Mehta - all respondents in the case. They argued that the court should first decide the petition's legality since it had been filed after the mandatory 45-day period when it should have actually been filed within the time limit. As per the law, elections could be challenged within 45 days of the polls having taken place. But in this case, that period had been long over.

However, the court refused to consider the plea saying that it could be argued whenthe case is being heard and directed that the recording of evidences begins tomorrow. However, the evidences of Congress leaders Sharad Pawar and Madhavrao Scindia, AICC general secretary in charge of Maharashtra, who have also been named as witnesses in the case will be called for only if it is found necessary after the rest were completed.

The candidature of Mehta has been challenged on the grounds that the 10 Congress MLAs who were supposed to have proposed Mehta's name had signed on a blank form. Since the signatories did not know the candidate they were signing for, Gidwani has contended, that Mehta had not been endorsed by them. Mehta had earlier been an MLC on a Congress ticket.

Shishir Joshi, a correspondent with the electronic media, Star News has also been called as a witness since he had recorded an interview with Pawar regarding the issue. He was in court today with his video cassette.

Former Mumbai Mayor Nirmla Samant - Prabhavalkar appeared for Sharad Pawar while former Congresslegislator Marzban Patrawala appeared for Scindia. Advocates Varsha Palav appeared for Ranjit Deshmukh, Shekhar Naphade for Arun Mehta and V M Thorat for Pratapsinh Mohite-Patil.