India, Jan. 8 -- Even as the Bombay High Court is hearing a spate of petitions challenging various aspects of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, from rejection of nomination papers to candidate eligibility, a fresh plea has been filed alleging the "mass rejection" of nomination forms across Mumbai's wards on "hyper-technical" and non-statutory grounds to "favour the ruling party".

The petition, filed by Mumbai-based businessman Mozam Ali Mir, claimed that the returning officers of all 227 electoral wards in the city have rejected several nominations on frivolous grounds, such as the affidavits not being in the prescribed format, defective question-answer sheets, and non-submission of no-objection certificates (NOCs) ...