The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed former BSF jawan Tej Bahadur’s plea that challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election from Varanasi constituency.
“We are of the opinion that the petition was rightly nipped in the bud by the Allahabad HC. The Civil Appeal is thereby dismissed”, a bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said while rejecting Bahadur’s plea.Bahadur, a Border Security Force Constable, wished to contest 2019 general elections from Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh on a Samajwadi Party ticket against BJP’s PM candidate. However, his nomination was rejected by the Returning Officer (RO), citing his failure to submit a certificate that he was not sacked from BSF for either corruption or disloyalty.
Bahadur claimed in his appeal that his nomination was wrongly rejected by the authorities and hence, Modi’s election must be set aside to give way for a fresh poll.He challenged RO’s decision in Allahabad High Court claiming that his nomination was rejected to set up an easy win for PM Modi but his petition was trashed by the court.
The jawan then approached the Supreme Court in February 2020, which announced the verdict today.The Top Court also said that the Allahabad High Court had done the right thing by dismissing the petition.
