Supreme Court winds up hearing on petition against PM Narendra Modi’s Varanasi win

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday wrapped up hearing in a petition filed by a former soldier against the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, and reserved it for judgement.

A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde reserved its order after rejecting former BSF jawan Tej Bahadur’s plea to adjourn the case.

“This is too important a case to be kept pending,” the CJI said. “It has been going on for far too long. It has already been adjourned four times.”


Tej Bahadur has claimed that the returning officer had wrongly rejected his nomination papers as a Samajwadi Party candidate from Varanasi. He has urged the court to declare the 2019 election from the constituency void and order fresh polls there.

We can’t hear this indefinitely. This cannot be carried on like this.

-CJI

During the hearing on Wednesday, Tej Bahadur’s lawyer, Pradeep Kumar Yadav, sought adjournment of the case to allow him to answer the court’s questions.

“We can’t hear this indefinitely,” the CJI said. Terming the PM’s office as a unique office, he said: “This cannot be carried on like this.”

“We are hearing you. We are not cutting you short. You can ask for time but we have to consider whether it is practical to give it,” the CJI said. “We are not adjourning it for any reason.”

The other judges on the bench are Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramaniun.

Faced with the court’s refusal for time, Yadav claimed that his client’s nomination papers had been wrongly rejected by the returning officer.

Under Election Commission rules, government employees contesting polls must submit a certificate that they had not been sacked from service over corruption or disloyalty to the state — those sacked over such charges cannot contest elections for five years. Yadav’s papers were rejected as they were not accompanied by the certificate.

The returning officer did not give Tej Bahadur sufficient time to submit the certificate from the Election Commission, Yadav claimed. If the papers are rejected the returning officer must give the candidate enough time to produce the certificate, he argued.

His argument was contested by senior advocate Harish N Salve who appeared for the PM. There is no such requirement, he argued, adding: “Time need not necessarily be given.”

The CJI then sought to know from Yadav whether Tej Bahadur had sought time to produce the certificate. The papers were rejected when he sought time, Yadav claimed.

Tej Bahadur was sacked from the BSF after a commission of enquiry found him guilty of indiscipline for going public with his grievance over watery dal and burnt rotis allegedly served to jawans.

He tried to contest first as an independent and later as an SP nominee, but his papers were rejected.