Source - Livelaw.in
The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday wrapped up hearing on a petition filed by a former soldier of indian army against the lok sabha election 0f 2019 of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Varanasi constituency, and reserved it for the judgement by the court.
A three judge bench of supreme court led by the CJI SA Bobde reserved its order after rejecting former BSF Jawan Tej Bahadur’s plea to adjourn the case he filed. The CJI said. “It is too import for a case to be kept pending , it has been going on for far too long. This case has already been adjourned four times.”
Tej Bahadur has claimed that the returning officer during the election had wrongly rejected his nomination papers as a candidate of Samajwadi Party from Varanasi seat. He has requested the supreme court to declare the 2019 lok sabha election from the Varanasi constituency as void and order fresh polls there.
During the hearing of the petition on Wednesday, Tej Bahadur’s lawyer, Mr. Pradeep Kumar Yadav sought the adjournment of the case so as to allow him to answer the supreme court’s questions.
The CJI said, “ we are not going to hear this indefinitely”, also the CJI calling the prime minister’s office as the unique office , he said: “This plea cannot be carried on like this for the PMO .”
“We are hearing your plea, Tej Bahadur can ask for time from court but, we have to considerate whether it is practical to give it,” the CJI SA Bobde said. “We are not going to adjourn the case for any reason.”
The other judges on the bench of supreme court are Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramaniun respectively. Mr.Yadav claimed that his client’s nomination papers had been wrongly rejected by the returning officer during the time of the elections 2019.
Under the Election Commission rules, government employees contesting in the election must submit a certificate which states that ,they had not been sacked from service over corruption or disloyalty to the nation. And those who were sacked under such charges will cannot contest in the elections for five years. Mr. Tej Bahdur’s papers were rejected by the EC as they were not accompanied by the certificate.