MUMBAI, June 25 -- The Bombay high court on Monday rejected a petition challenging Shiv Sena MLA Rajendra Gavit's election from Palghar on the grounds that he had violated rules by disclosing he had a second wife while filling his nomination form. A single-judge bench of justice Sandeep Marne ruled that the petition failed to show how Gavit's disclosure about his second marriage materially affected the election result. The bench added that the Shiv Sena leader had candidly and honestly disclosed the information and it could not be a ground for challenging his election. Sudhir Brijendra Jain, a social activist, had filed an election petition in the high court, claiming that Gavit's win in last year's assembly polls was void because a second marriage, while the first is still legally valid, is illegal under the Hindu Marriage Act. Jain also contended that Gavit had violated the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, by tinkering with the format of the nomination form to add details about his second marriage. "There is no provision for making any declaration of a second spouse. Therefore, the additional column in respect of the second spouse is in violation of the election rules," he said. Subsequently, Gavit asked for the petition to be rejected, stating that merely adding a column in the form for making correct disclosures cannot be a ground for seeking the declaration of his election as void. "There is no prohibition or restriction on any candidate from making any voluntary disclosure of information," he added. Gavit's lawyer, advocate Nitin Gangal, submitted that the declaration of a second marriage had not materially affected the election in any manner. He also informed the court that Gavit belongs to the tribal Bhil community, which does not come under the mandate of the Hindu Marriage Act. The tribe also does not prohibit a second marriage, he claimed. "In fact, there is a custom of polygamy in the Bhil community," Gangal added. Jain's lawyer, senior advocate Neeta Karnik, argued that Gavit had declared his second marriage deliberately to influence voters from his community. "The [Palghar] constituency was reserved for the ST (Scheduled Tribe) community and Mr Rajendra Gavit has largely benefited on account of this disclosure from local tribal voters," she said. However, the court upheld Gavit's election, observing that the addition of a column in the nomination form, which has details such as PAN and the status of filing income tax returns by the candidate, their spouse, their family and dependents, would neither render it defective nor amount to a violation of the provisions of the Election Rules. "There may be cases where a candidate belonging to a particular religion, in which polygamy is not prohibited, has contracted multiple marriages. If the contention of the petitioner about impermissibility to add a column is accepted, such a candidate would never be able to contest any election," the bench said. The court held that the contention raised by Jain about the impermissibility to have a second marriage during the subsistence of the first marriage is "purely inferential" and does not constitute making a false statement by the candidate in the nomination form....