Allahabad high court dismisses election petition against PM Modi

ALLAHABAD: The Allahabad high court on Friday dismissed an election petition filed against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by one Tej Bahadur Yadav.
Dismissing the petition filed by Tej Bahadur Yarav, Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta said that since Tej Bahadur Yadav was not a candidate in the parliamentary election, he had no locus (right) to file election petition.
Earlier, the high court had reserved its order on October 23, 2019 regarding the objections filed on behalf of PM Narendra Modi against the election petition challenging his election from Varanasi parliamentary constituency in Lok Sabha election 2019.In his objections, PM Modi has taken the plea that this election petition is not maintainable.
The order has been reserved by Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta while hearing an election petition filed by Tej Bahadur Yadav, challenging the election of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi as Member of Parliament from Varanasi parliamentary constituency in Lok Sabha elections.
The election petition was filed by Tej Bahadur Yadav. He was terminated from Border Security Force (BSF) and was declared as Samajwadi Party candidate from Varanasi parliamentary seat but he failed to contest election as his nomination paper was rejected by the returning officer.
His nomination paper was rejected by the district returning officer of Varanasi on May 1, 2019 from Varanasi following his failure to submit a certificate that he was not sacked from service for either corruption or disloyalty.
Appearing on behalf of PM Modi, his counsel Satya Pal Jain had submitted before the court that the election petition is not maintainable under order 7 rule 11 of civil procedure code as well as section 86 of the Representation of the People Act, as there is no allegation of malpractice in the election. The court, after hearing counsels of concerned parties, reserved its verdict on the objections against maintainability of election petition.
Tej Bahadur Yadav has filed this election petition, alleging that his nomination paper was wrongly rejected by Returning Officer of Varanasi. As a result of rejection of his nomination paper, he was not able to contest Lok Sabha election from Varanasi parliamentary seat against PM Modi, which is his constitutional right.
Yadav has requested the court to declare the election of PM Narendra Modi as MP from Varanasi seat as null and void.