The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking to annul the results of the November 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections on the ground that nearly 76 lakh votes were allegedly cast after the official polling deadline of 6 pm.

The division bench of Justices G.S. Kulkarni and Arif Doctor rejected the plea filed by Mumbai resident Chetan Chandrakant Ahire, who was represented by advocate Prakash Ambedkar of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.

The petition alleged procedural irregularities and a lack of transparency in the counting process post 6 pm, raising concerns over a sudden spike in votes that, according to the petitioner, compromised public trust in the electoral process.

During the hearings, the bench questioned why similar voting patterns in earlier elections, including the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, were not previously challenged. The court also noted that without specific evidence showing that votes cast after 6 pm directly benefited any winning candidate, the plea lacked substantive merit.

Though the court observed that a full day had been spent hearing the matter—calling it a "waste of judicial time"—it chose not to impose costs on the petitioner.

Earlier, the Election Commission’s counsel had challenged the petitioner's locus standi and pointed out that the elected candidates had not been made parties to the case. The bench accepted several of these arguments in its decision to dismiss the petition.

Following the verdict, Election Commission sources told NDTV that the court's ruling had effectively addressed the concerns raised by Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge regarding alleged irregularities in the voting process.