The Supreme Court issued notices to Union Rural Development Minister C P Joshi and the Election Commission of India on a petition filed by BJP MLA from Rajasthan Kalyan Singh Chouhan, who had defeated Mr Joshi by a single vote in the 2008 Rajasthan Assembly elections.

A vacation Bench of Justices Deepak Verma and K S Radhakrishnan, issued notices after hearing the counsel for Mr Chouhan, who contended that the Rajasthan High Court had passed an ‘illegal’ order by directing to include six out of the 10 tender votes (disputed votes) in the recounting.

He said the High Court should have directed to include all the 10 tender votes in the recounting and not just six.

The apex court asked that why only six tender votes were directed to be included in the recounting of votes.

The petitioner also contended that since there was a difference of only one vote in winning the elections, exclusion of four votes will prejudice the case of the petitioner.

Mr Joshi, who had lost from Nathupura Assembly constituency only by one vote, was also a strong contender for the post of Chief Minister. He lost the race only because of his defeat in the assembly elections.

Subsequently, Mr Joshi contested parliamentary elections on Congress ticket.

UNI