The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition alleging discrepancies in the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in November 2024, especially the unusually large percentage of votes cast post the 6 PM deadline (voting hours) [Chetan Chandrakant Ahire v Union of India and Ors].

A Bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice N Kotiswar Singh refused to entertain the appeal filed by one Chetan Chandrakant Ahire against a Bombay High Court order of June 2025.

The plea sought a declaration that the results across all 288 assembly constituencies in the State be set aside due to alleged violations in the polling process.

The petitioner highlighted that "unusually high number" of votes were cast after the 6 PM official polling time, specifically claiming over 75 lakh votes were recorded after the deadline.

Additionally, he highlighted discrepancies between polled and counted votes in more than 90 constituencies.

Among the reliefs sought were details of post-6 PM voting tokens, a constituency-wise breakdown of votes cast outside official hours and the revocation of election certificates for successful candidates.

The petitioner had earlier approached the Bombay High Court with this plea, but his petition was dismissed.

The High Court had observed that the petition was founded solely on a single newspaper report, contained speculative and unsubstantiated claims, and amounted to a gross abuse of the process of law.

It had further held that the petitioner had admittedly not approached the Election Commission with any demand for justice before invoking the Court’s writ jurisdiction.

This led to the appeal before the top court.

The appeal was filed through advocate Pratik R Bombarde.