Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday said that for the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) elections, more polling booths ought to be made available in the future. It accepted the state’s submission that it would be difficult to add more booths now, given that voting is a mere two weeks away, on April 3.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale orally observed, “The process of having more polling centres will have to be set in motion for the next elections, so that there is better participation of voters.” The HC did not interfere with the notified election schedule at this stage.
A petition filed by several doctors challenged the election amid concerns of a low turnout of doctors. The MMC governing body election is fixed for a weekday, and the centres are restricted in location and numbers, said the plea by Dr Sudhir Naik and seven others.
The bench, during the hearing, said it was with the petitioners on the booth count issue after hearing counsel Mihir Desai and Rui Rodrigues for the doctors. To a suggestion of holding the election on a Sunday, additional govt pleader Jyoti Chavan noted that earlier, when elections were held twice on a Sunday, the turnout was a mere 13 and 23 percent. The HC then said more polling stations are required to ensure more doctors vote. Chavan said the state was not taking it as adversarial litigation, but given the logistics to prepare a separate voters list and locate more centres “at the last minute,” it cannot be done.
The HC said this time there would be no change in polling stations but called for an affidavit from the state by March 24, with a “positive solution” to the issue raised.