Supreme Court Rejects Tej Bahadur Yadav's Plea

Guwahati: The Supreme Court today rejected sacked Border Security Force (BSF) jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav's plea challenging the Election Commission's decision to reject his nomination papers from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that they do not find any grounds to entertain the plea of Yadav. The bench said that Yadav had moved the top court challenging the decision of Returning Officer to reject his nomination papers from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat saying that it was intended to give a walkover to PM Modi.

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi who appeared for the Election Commission referred to various supreme court judgements and said that election petitions can only be filed after polls are over as it would vitiate the electoral process.

On the other hand, Advocate Prashant Bhushan who appeared for Yadav said that as per earlier verdict of the top court, the election petition can be filed during enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct.

Advocate Bhushan sought liberty from the court to file an election petition after polling is over at the end of the hearing. The court said that they have done what they could have done. "We find no grounds to entertain this petition," the court said asking the poll panel to examine grievances of Yadav.

On May 1, the Returning Officer had rejected the nomination papers of Samajwadi Party candidate, Tej Bahadur Yadav who was dismissed from BSF in 2017 after he posted a video online complaining about the food served to the troops.

The poll panel official held that Yadav failed to furnish a certificate as mandated under the Representation of People (RP) Act to the effect that he has not been dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the state.

The Returning Officer while rejecting the nomination papers observed that the nomination paper is neither accompanied by a certificate issued in the prescribed manner by the election commission to the effect that he has not been dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the state.

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