The Bombay High Court on September 29 set aside the elections to the Maharashtra Council of Indian Medicine (including ayurveda and unani) that took place in May 1999.

A division bench passed the orders in a group of petitions filed by contenders to the council who alleged that their nomination forms had been rejected on flimsy grounds. The petitioners, represented by counsel Mihir Desai, alleged that the nomination papers of one of the petitioners, Jagdish Nandlal Dhuppad, was rejected because he had used the prefix Vd (Vaidya) though he as an ayurveda doctor had been allowed to use the prefix.

Simliarly, Mohammad Aslam claimed that his nomination paper was rejected because there was a minor error in the address written by him. Desai told the court that 48 persons had filed their nominations for the eight posts on the council in contention. Of these, nomination forms of 38 were rejected.

In their order, the bench set aside the elections that took place anddirected fresh elections from the scrutiny point of the elections. Hence, no new nomination forms would be accepted, but no nomination form could be rejected on these grounds, it was ruled.

No bail for firing on sub-inspector

The Bombay High Court recently rejected bail to one Vishnukant Chorge, accused of firing on Police Sub Inspector D N Gosavi of the Crime Branch, Navi Mumbai, in 1998. Justice Vishnu Sahai observed that the gravity of the crime made the applicant less deserving of bail. According to the case, the accused was travelling in a Maruti on April 8, 1998 at around 7.15 pm in ``suspicious circumstances''. The vehicle reached Mhape Circle on the Thane-Mhape road when PSI Gosavi chased the vehicle and overtook it. When the vehicle was stopped, the applicant allegedly fired on Gosavi, who fired back. Chorge was injured, and he and another co-accused were arrested and charged under section 307 (attempt to murder) and 279 of the IPC.

The applicant pleaded that no trial has taken placesince he has been imprisoned and that there is no chance of a speedy trial. Chorge also pointed out that his co-accused has been granted bail. The maximum sentence for this act was 10 years, argued Chorge, and he should be released on bail.However, Justice Sahai noted that such cases where actions are committed against public servants ``needed to be dealt with sternly''. ``Otherwise the police would be demoralised and start shying from taking action leading to a spurt in violence'', he observed. However, noting that the Supreme Court has always upheld the undertrial's right to a speedy trial, he has directed the lower court to dispose of Chorge's case as ``far as possible, within the outer limit of six months''.

Bail for BJP Kalyan chief

The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to the BJP president of Kalyan who has been accused of hatching a conspiracy to murder vice-president Vinod Bhave. The court, while giving Anil Jarande bail, expressed doubts about the prosecution's case that theaccused had conspired to murder the deceased. It found merit in the defence's argument that the averments made by the prosecution could only be one of ``hatching a conspiracy to assault the deceased below the waist''. Also, since the accused had been in jail for eight months without scope for a speedy trial, the court directed that he be released on bail.

Bhave had accused Jarande of having illicit relations with one Sangita Naik. On December 1, 1998, Avinash Naik allegedly wrote a letter to the secretary of the BJP unit at Kalyan that was signed by Bhave demanding that Jarande resign from the post within 48 hours due to poor functioning. On February 20, Bhave was found dead in a tunnel at Kalyan. According to the prosecution, witnesses corroborated that the accused had hatched a conspiracy of murder. Assistant government pleader, Usha Kejriwal said witnesses like Nihal Shaikh had told the police on February 27 that he had heard the applicant telling the co-accused Ravi Jadhav and Subhash Bhonsle that hewas ready to pay Rs 20,000 for ``assaulting the deceased below the waist''. Other witnesses too gave similar statements to the police.