Plea in SC challenging PM Narendra Modi’s election from Varanasi in 2019 polls

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi in the 2019 general election, reports legal news website LiveLaw.in.

Former BSF jawan Tej Bahadur has challenged the order of the Allahabad High Court passed on December 16, 2019 by way of Civil Appeal, in which the court had dismissed his Election Petition on ground of lack of locus standi and that the HC has failed to appreciate the misuse of provisions under Sections 9 & 33(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 by the District Election Officer.

Furthermore, the plea states that the Allahabad High Court had not taken into account the merits of the case and had wrongly decided the plea on "mere technical grounds".

The plea avers that the Allahabad High Court has committed a "grave error" in holding that the appellant has no locus as being an unregistered voter of the Varanasi Lok Sabha Constituency and being a non-resident of Varanasi.

The appellant contends that the High Court has not taken into account the settled law laid down by the Supreme Court which states that any person who has filed nomination in any constituency and his candidature has been rejected by the Returning Officer, "then he has locus to file Election Petition on sole ground of his rejection order" apart from having completed the age of 25 years, being a citizen of India, not having been punished/ convicted by any court of law, not being guilty of any type of moral turpitude and being of sound mind.

Following this, he was given a ticket by the Samajwadi Party, where after he filed his second nomination for the 77th General Elections in 2019, but was later cancelled by the Election Officer of Varanasi U.P.

Furthermore, the plea questions the justification of the rejection of the appellant’s Election Petition vide the impugned order in terms of the stipulation of Section 80 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951.

The plea further purports to the sequence of events wherein the appellant’s nomination was rejected "unfairly" and "in a partisan manner" that led to filing of the earlier SLP preferred before the Supreme Court, which was in effect dismissed on May 9, 2019.

Ex-BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav had approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Returning Officer to reject his nomination from Varanasi constituency, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seeking re-election.

In 2017, Yadav had uploaded a video in social media where he complained that poor quality food was being served to personnel guarding the Indo-Pak border. This led to a huge furore and a court martial enquiry was held against him, which culminated in his dismissal on grounds of making false complaints in media.

Yadav had initially announced that he would take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi as an independent candidate.