Mumbai, Jul 15 The Bombay High Court on Wednesday deferred by a week elections to the Mumbai Press Club, and ordered the returning officer to accept all the nomination forms rejected on the ground of signature mismatch.
Justice Arif Doctor directed the returning officer to allow these candidates whose nominations had been rejected to contest the elections, and also appointed a court observer to oversee the polling process.
The court postponed the elections from July 17 to July 24, and directed that nominations can be withdrawn till July 16.
Advocate Mikhail Behl was appointed as the court observer. He will be paid an honorarium of Rs 45,000 by the club for supervising the election process.
The order came on a plea filed by journalists Anil Singh, Madhu Nainan and O P Tiwari whose nominations had been rejected.
On Wednesday both parties agreed that the nomination forms rejected due to signature mismatch would be accepted, candidates may withdraw their nominations on July 16, and the elections would be held on July 24.
The three journalists in their plea said the election process was arbitrary and that nomination forms were rejected on frivolous grounds such as signature mismatch to favour a particular panel.
