SC refuses adjournment, passover in plea against election of PM Narendra Modi, reserves verdict

New Delhi : The Supreme Court has reserved order on a petition challenging the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat. Tej Bahadur Yadav, a dismissed BSF soldier who failed to contest the election, has demanded re-election. Earlier the High Court has rejected this demand. The High Court had said that only the person contesting the election can challenge the election of the winner. Therefore, Teja Bahadur does not have the right to file an election petition.

Constable Tej Bahadur had challenged the election of PM Modi from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat held last year. He said that his nomination as a Samajwadi Party official candidate had been rejected. He said that the election of the PM be set aside on this ground. He had moved the Allahabad High Court, but his plea was rejected.

The apex court, which refused to accept the request of Yadav’s counsel to adjourn the hearing, observed that whether his nomination was rightly or wrongly rejected depends on his eligibility. “Why should we grant you liberty for adjournment. You are abusing the process of law. You argue,” a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde told Yadav’s counsel.

The counsel argued that Bahadur had earlier filed his nomination as an independent candidate and later as a candidate of the Samajwadi Party. The Returning Officer on May 1 last year had rejected the nomination papers of Bahadur, a Samajwadi Party candidate, who was dismissed from BSF in 2017 after he posted a video online complaining about the quality of food served to the troops.