MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked the Maharashtra govt to present its stand next Friday on a petition challenging a notice for the forthcoming elections to the Maharashtra Medical Council governing body.
The petition expressed fears of a low voter turnout due to the poll day being a weekday and held at a single location in each district.
The notice is restrictive as the election day, time, and venue would prevent many doctors from participating in the polling process, making it unfair, said a few doctors who filed the petition. The election is scheduled for April 3 between 8 am and 5 pm.
The High Court division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale, after hearing senior counsel Mihir Desai and counsel Rui Rodrigues for the petitioning doctors, issued a notice to the returning officer and the MMC. The HC asked the State’s lawyer to take instructions in the matter while posting the matter for hearing next Friday.
Dr Sudhir Naik and seven others from Mumbai and Thane, in their petition, said the challenge is to a January 17, 2025, notice of election for the MMC, Mumbai. The challenge is to the extent that it “restricts” the election to being held only at district headquarters on a weekday, a Thursday, April 3, 2025.
Their petition contended that conducting the polls at a single station in a district, coupled with it being scheduled on a weekday, would “deny registered medical practitioners in the state a fair opportunity to cast their votes, thus ultimately unfairly impacting the outcome of the election of a body which acts as a regulator of medical professionals in the state.”
The MMC Act was enacted in 1965. In 2016-17, when the last election to the MMC was held, the voter turnout was “only 30 percent,” said the petitioners.
One of the petitioners, Dr Suhas Kate, made a representation to the returning officer to set out the grievances of how the election schedule may prevent effective participation of doctors. The petition says the schedule may thus “adversely impact” the very public and private healthcare system the MMC seeks to regulate, as voters are drawn from private hospitals and nursing homes, apart from state and civic, rural hospitals. In a city like Mumbai, the problem is more acute considering traffic congestion is very common on weekdays, said Dr Kate’s representation.
The petition has sought the quashing of the election notice and directions to the state to conduct the MMC, Mumbai elections at multiple places within each district and hold it on a Sunday or any other non-working day. The petition, as interim relief, seeks a stay on the voting scheduled for April 3.
A lower turnout would impact the “democractic nature of the elections” the petition said.