Election petition against PM Modi not maintainable, Allahabad HC told

CHANDIGARH: While appearing before the Allahabad high court for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an election petition filed by Tej Bahadur against him, senior advocate, Satya Pal Jain told the Allahabad high court that the petition filed by Tej Bahadur against Modi is not maintainable.

It was also stated that the petitioner has no locus or any right to file an election petition against Modi challenging his election from Varanasi parliamentary constituency to Lok Sabha held in May 2019.

Sacked BSF constable Tej Bahadur, whose nomination papers were rejected, has filed an election petition against Narendra Modi on the ground that his nomination papers were wrongly rejected.

Appearing for Narendra Modi in this case, Jain submitted an application seeking the dismissal of election petition in limine under Order 7 Rule 11 of the civil procedure code. Jain said that under Section 81 of the Representation of People Act, 1951, the election petition can be filed against a candidate either by a voter or a duly nominated candidate.

He said that Tej Bahadur is not a voter in the Varanasi parliamentary constituency. He also said that since Tej Bahadur did not file a certificate issued by the election commission of India along with his nomination papers, his nomination papers were rightly rejected and, as such, he was not a duly nominated candidate.

He said that Tej Bahadur does not fall either under the category of an elector or a duly nominated candidate. Therefore, he cannot file an election petition. He urged the court to dismiss the election petition without putting it to the trial.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta of the Allahabad HC has issued notice on the application to Tej Bahadur seeking his reply on the contentions by September 4.