New Delhi: The Supreme Court asked Wednesday the Election Commission (EC) to examine grievances raised by sacked BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav, whose nomination against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varansai was cancelled. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi asked the counsel for EC to seek instructions and appraise it by Thursday.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Yadav, referred to an earlier verdict of the court and said election petitions can be filed during the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
Yadav had moved the top court challenging the decision of Returning Officer (RO) to reject his nomination papers from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, stating it was intended to ‘give walkover’ to PM Modi.
The RO had rejected May 1, the nomination papers of Yadav, a Samajwadi Party candidate, 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 Peoples (RP) Act to the effect that he has not been ‘dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the state’.
Yadav has sought setting aside of RO’s decision and the apex court’s nod to contest elections from high-profile Varanasi seat where poll is slated to taken place, May 19.
The Samajwadi Party had initially fielded Shalini Yadav as its candidate to contest against Modi, but later nominated the sacked BSF jawan.
While rejecting the nomination papers of Yadav, the RO had observed that ‘the nomination paper is neither accompanied by 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’.
“While passing the impugned order…the RO completely failed to appreciate that the Petitioner (Yadav) had produced his dismissal letter along with his nomination paper which clearly shows that he was dismissed from service for alleged indiscipline and not for corruption or disloyalty to state, as is provided under Section 9 and Section 33 (3) of the (RP) Act,” the plea had said.
Yadav, in his reply to RO’s first notice of April 29, had submitted that he was dismissed from BSF due to ‘indiscipline’ which is not covered under the election law and hence, a certificate from EC to that effect was not required, the plea said.