The case, challenging the candidature and the victory of Arun Mehta, independent candidate in the 1998 Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, came up for directions in the court of Justice F I Rebello.

Rebello who will be hearing the case now since the earlier judge Justice V R Datar had retired, today directed that the summons be sent and scheduled April 19, 20, 21 and 23 as the dates for the hearing of the case. The case will be heard on all these days from 12.30 pm to 2 pm, it was decided.

The case for Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, independent candidate who fought the elections and lost, is being handled by advocate Mukesh Vashi who has listed out the Congress heavyweights as witnesses in the case. According to Gidwani,Arun Mehta, who got elected as an independent had been able to put through his nomination paper only because of the support of 10 sitting Congress MLAs. However, none of these MLAs had known that they were supporting Mehta since they had signed on blank papers and were themselves surprised when Mehta won through their support.

In his petition, Gidwani has claimed that Mehta's nomination papers were not valid because his supporters were unaware of his candidature. Had Mehta not won, Gidwani would have won in the 1998 MLC elections. He has pleaded that the court set aside Mehta's elections.

Eight witnesses in the case have already been examined in the court of the earlier judge. Sharad Pawar, Opposition Leader in the Parliament has also been listed as a witness in the case because of an interview given to a television newsmagazine, Star News in which he said that collecting MLAs' signatures on blank nomination papers was a practice in the Congress and there was nothing wrong in it.

The matter had createda furore in the Congress, with Sonia Gandhi taking strong objection to the victory of Arun Mehta through Congress support. Show cause notices were issued by Madhavrao Scindia which is why he has also been listed as a witness in the case. When the case was first heard in February, advocate for Pawar and Scindia, Nirmala Samant-Prabhavalkar had asked for an exemption for her clients because of the budget session in the Parliament.