Sanjaybhai Mangalbhai Gadhavi vs The State Election Commission
2026 Latest Caselaw 2120 Guj

Gujarat High Court

Sanjaybhai Mangalbhai Gadhavi vs The State Election Commission on 9 April, 2026

                                                                                                            NEUTRAL CITATION




                            C/SCA/5134/2026                                  ORDER DATED: 09/04/2026

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                                  IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD

                                    R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 5134 of 2026
                     ==========================================================
                                           SANJAYBHAI MANGALBHAI GADHAVI
                                                        Versus
                                        THE STATE ELECTION COMMISSION & ORS.
                     ==========================================================
                     Appearance:
                     MR CP CHAMPANERI(5920) for the Petitioner(s) No. 1
                     G H VIRK(7392) for the Respondent(s) No. 4
                     MS MRUNAL DHOLARIA, ASST.GOVERNMENT PLEADER for the
                     Respondent(s) No. ,2,3
                     MS AISHVARYA for Respondent (s) No.1
                     MR SIMRANJITSINGH H VIRK(11607) for the Respondent(s) No. 4
                     ==========================================================

                        CORAM:HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE N.S.SANJAY GOWDA
                              and
                              HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE J. L. ODEDRA

                                                Date : 09/04/2026
                                                     ORDER

(PER : HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE N.S.SANJAY GOWDA)

1. The prayer of the petitioner is to direct the respondents to

include his name in the Electoral Roll of Ward No.44 of

Khokhara and permit him to participate in the electoral

process in the upcoming elections of the Ahmedabad

Municipal Corporation (AMC).

2. It is the case of the petitioner that his name was in the

assembly constituency, which forms the basis of the

preparation of the electoral rolls for the Municipal

Corporation elections. However, his name came to be

NEUTRAL CITATION

C/SCA/5134/2026 ORDER DATED: 09/04/2026

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deleted in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and as a

consequence, he made an application for inclusion of his

name on 12.03.2026. It is his case that the said

application was accepted and he has received a message

on his telephone that the application has been processed

successfully. He also stated that the application filed by

the petitioner has been acknowledged digitally on

12.03.2026.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner points out that he was

issued with an EPIC Card indicating that his name had

been included in respect of Maninagar assembly

constituency.

4. It is not in serious dispute that the Maninagar assembly

constituency comprises of ward falling within the

Khokhara constituency and, therefore, the persons in the

electoral roll of Maninagar constituency will have to be

included in the electoral list for the AMC elections.

5. Learned counsel for the State Election Commission points

out that the preliminary list was prepared on 23.03.2026

on the basis of the revised assembly constituency electoral

NEUTRAL CITATION

C/SCA/5134/2026 ORDER DATED: 09/04/2026

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roll dated 17.02.2026 and, since the name of the petitioner

was not even in the revised list dated 17.02.2026, his

name could not be included in the electoral roll for the

AMC.

6. Learned counsel for the State Election Commission,

however, submits that she is unable to verify whether the

application f the petitioner for being included was made on

12.03.2026 and was accepted by the concerned authority.

7. Learned counsel for the State Election Commission

submits that the request of the petitioner for inclusion in

the electoral roll has been rejected on 06.04.2026 on the

ground that the name of the petitioner was not found in

the revised electoral roll prepared on 17.02.2026. Learned

counsel also submits that in view of Rule 6 of the Bombay

Provincial Municipal Corporation (Registration of Voters)

Rules, 1994, would also disentitle the State Election

Commission from incorporating the name of the petitioner

within the period preceding 10 days of the last date of

filing the nomination.

8. Learned counsel for the petitioner has placed on record the

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C/SCA/5134/2026 ORDER DATED: 09/04/2026

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application form that he had filed on 12.03.2026 for

inclusion of his name. This application also consists of a

digital signature which acknowledges the filing of the form.

Hence, the application.

9. He has also, thereafter, produced the SMS message which

indicates that his application for inclusion bearing

reference No.S06053O6N1203261200002, was processed

successfully.

10. This would indicate that prior to the publication of

Preliminary list on 23.03.2026, the name of the petitioner

was, in fact, included in the assembly constituency of

Maninagar. If the name of the petitioner was included in

the Maninagar constituency, it is obvious that he gets the

right to be also included in the electoral roll for

participation in the election process of AMC.

11. Consequently, we are of the view that the writ petition

deserves to be allowed and accordingly, a direction is

issued to respondent No.4 to include the name of the

petitioner in the electoral roll of Ward No.44 of Khokhara

and as a consequence, the petitioner would also be at

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C/SCA/5134/2026 ORDER DATED: 09/04/2026

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liberty to participate in the electoral process scheduled to

be held in the forthcoming month.

Direct service is permitted today.

(N.S.SANJAY GOWDA,J)

(J. L. ODEDRA, J) SUDHIR