Nagpur: Nagpur’s controversial lawyer Satish Uke appears to be unstoppable, come what amount of setbacks! In yet another setback to Uke, the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court on Monday rejected his plea seeking transfer of district collector Sachin Kurve. Uke had demanded collector’s shifting saying it would ensure more transparency during elections to various civic bodies and also for graduates constituency.
Citing Maharashtra Government’s reply, a division bench made it clear that the collector had no role to play in conducting local body elections. It noted that even the State Election Commission had turned down Uke’s representation.
The petitioner had demanded interim directives to respondents to restrain the collector from any work related to teachers’ constituency polls held on February 3, with a view to ensure free and fair process.
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27 June 2025
Citing various news items, Uke had applied to ECI, SEC and chief electoral officer for his transfer. He also accused the collector of alleged bribery and unfair election practices, during his previous tenure.
According to him, the collector was allegedly involved in a case of perjury amounting to contempt of court in the past. He further accused him of allegedly misusing his position and his overall working style proved he was working for a set of politicians. Uke argued the respondent was playing an important role at the district level in election process for legislative council from teachers’ constituency as well as local authorities (civic polls). He expressed possibility of poll process getting hampered.
During last hearing, the bench had issued notices to the respondents including Election Commission of India (ECI), Mumbai-based chief electoral officer, State Election Commission (SEC), Maharashtra’s chief secretary and divisional commissioner in the city, apart from the collector himself.
The petitioner cited a post on social networking website alleging that collector allegedly face corruption charges and a person known to him had offered Rs21 lakh to the official for land regularization. A civil litigation is also pending against the collector.
