SC reserves order on Ex-BSF Jawan's plea challenging PM's candidature in Varanasi

The apex court, which refused to accept the request of Tej Bahadur Yadav’s counsel to adjourn the hearing, observed that whether his nomination was rightly or wrongly rejected depends on his eligibility.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday reserved order on sacked BSF Jawan Tej Bahadur's plea challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict which had dismissed his election petition against the poll panel's decision to reject his nomination papers to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The apex court, which refused to accept the request of Tej Bahadur 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 S A Bobde told Yadav’s counsel.

The plea has been pending in the apex court and the CJI S A Bobde said that they are hearing the matter as the respondent occupies a unique office.

The bench comprised of Justice A S Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramnian. The plea alleged that his nomination was rejected to let PM Modi win the 2019 election from Varanasi. Advocate Pradeep Yadav contended for the petitioner that his nomination was rejected and he was not considered.

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Senior Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for PM Modi, told the court that Tej Bahadur had filed two petitions and in one he says he was dismissed from his job and in another, he denies that.

Tej Bahadur had sought time from the Allahabad High Court to provide documents collected from the Election Commission, informed Salve. CJI asked Bahadur's counsel to provide evidence. 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.

While rejecting the nomination papers of Bahadur, the Returning Officer had observed that "the nomination paper is not 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".

(With inputs from PTI)