The Apex Court will take up a plea filed by a sacked constable of the Border Security Force (BSF) who has challenged the election of PM Narendra Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat held in 2019.
Tej Bahadur had objected to the rejection of his nomination as Samajwadi Party’s official candidate from Varanasi. On this ground, he sought PM Modi’s election to be set aside. The Allahabad HC dismissed his plea at the threshold by a detailed order on December 6, 2019. It held that Tej Bahadur was neither a candidate nor an elector to question Varanasi election result. The appeal in the top court challenges the correctness of this decision.
Interestingly, the Supreme Court received this plea in Feb 2020. The case suffered many procedural flaws. It took three months to prepare the case for hearing. & now, Bahadur’s lawyers will face a bench of CJI SA Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna & Hrishikesh Roy through video-conferencing.
On May 1, 2019, Bahadur’s nomination paper was rejected by the Returning Officer. He had earlier filed nomination as an independent candidate from Varanasi but subsequently entered nominated as Samajwadi Party candidate.
He admitted in his nomination form that the BSF, where he was employed, had terminated his services. This happened in April 2017 after his video exposing the cheap quality of food provided to soldiers went viral. The Returning Officer wished to know if the ground for termination was corruption or disloyalty to the state. If so, such candidates attract a five-year bar on contesting elections.
Bahadur alleged his dismissal was on other grounds. The Returning Officer followed the rulebook & required a certificate from the Election Commission in this regard. His failure to produce this certificate led to the rejection of his nomination. The matter even came up to the SC which refused to interfere with this decision.
Before the HC, Prime Minister made an appearance through his attorneys. He told the Court that the petitioner lacked locus to file the plea. Section 81 of the Representation of Peoples Act provides that a challenge to an election can be made either by a candidate or an elector of that constituency.
PM Modi’s Advocates argued that Tej Bahadur failed on both counts as his nomination stood rejected by the Returning Officer. He was not a registered voter of Varanasi either. In his plea, he admitted to be an elector from Bhiwani, Mahendragarh Parliamentary Constituency in Haryana.
The HC concluded that the petitioner was neither an elector nor a candidate & went on to dismiss the petition as not maintainable. On merits too, Tej Bahadur failed to succeed. His non-submission of certificate from the Election Commission went against him. The HC held, “When a candidate is dismissed from government service within five years of filing of the nomination, he is under obligation to file certificate from the Election Commission that his dismissal was not on ground of disloyalty or corruption, failing which, he will be presumed to be not duly nominated.”
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