SC seeks EC’s views on rejection of dismissed BSF soldier’s nomination

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission to explain by Thursday why the returning officer of Varanasi rejected the nomination papers of ex-BSF soldier Tej Bahadur Yadav. The petitioner had said the returning officer asked him to submit an affidavit, along with his nomination papers, which stated if he had been sacked for “disloyalty to the state” or “corruption.”

Yadav said BSF dismissed him on April 19, 2017, on grounds of indiscipline for his refusal to eat sub-standard food but his papers were rejected mala fide to allow the ruling party candidate to have a walkover in the polls. PM Modi is the BJP candidate in Varanasi. Prashant Bhushan appeared for Yadav.

A bench led by CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta issued notices on Yadav’s plea, filed after his nomination papers were rejected on May 1. Though courts are barred from interfering with the poll process, Bhushan cited the SC ruling in the Mohinder Singh Gill case to seek the court’s intervention in Yadav’s favour.


He also claimed that Yadav could have provided the requisite certificate had he been given adequate time. Yadav had even made a representation to the EC for more time, he said.

“However, the returning officer of the Election Commission on that very day, without waiting for the commission’s response to the representation, rejected his nomination papers on the grounds that he was dismissed from government service on April 19, 2017, and five years’ from the date had not elapsed,” Bhushan said.