PM Modi's 2019 Election From Varanasi: Ex-BSF Jawan Moves SC Against Allahabad HC Order

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election from Varanasi in the 2019 general election.

"That in this election petition the appellant under sections 80, 80A and 84 read with section 100 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has prayed to declare the election of the respondent from the 77th Lok Sabha Parliamentary Constituency Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh to be void and to cancel/discontinue the order dated 1/05/2019 passed by the Electoral Officer/Returning Officer [declaring the Appellant's nomination invalid]" - Excerpt of the Petition

Former BSF Officer  Mr. Tej Bahadur has challenged the order of the Allahabad High Court passed on December 16, 2019  by way of Civil Appeal, in which the Court had dismissed the Election petition of Bahadur on ground of lack of locus standi & that the HC has failed to appreciate the misuse of provisions under Sections 9 & 33(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 by the District Election Officer.

Furthermore, the plea drawn by by Advocate Pradeep Kumar & filed by Advocate Sanjeev Malhotra states that the Election petition by the Allahabad High Court had not taken into account the merits of the case and had wrongly decided the plea on "mere technical grounds" of Order VII Rule 11 CPC".

The plea avers that the Allahabad High Court has committed a "grave error" in holding that the appellant has no locus as being an an unregistered voter of the Varanasi Lok Sabha Constituency & being a non-resident of Varanasi.

"Because the High Court failed to appreciate that the nomination letter of the appellant has been inappropriately rejected by misusing the legal provisions, due to which the 2019 election of the 77th Parliamentary Constituency is liable to be declared as void on the basis of the section 100(1C) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951" - Excerpt of Petition (One of the Grounds)

In light of this, the appellant contends that the High Court has not taken into account the settled law laid down by the Supreme Court which states that any person who has filed nomination in any constituency and his candidature has been rejected by the Returning Officer, "then he has locus to file Election Petition on sole ground of his rejection order" apart from having completed the age of 25 years, being a Citizen of India, should not have been punished/ convicted by any court of law, is not guilty of any type of moral turpitude and must be of sound mind.

Following this, he was given a ticket by the Samajwadi Party, whereafter he filed his second nomination for the 77th General Elections in 2019, but was later cancelled by the Election Officer of Varanasi U.P.

Furthermore, the plea inter alia, questions the justification of the rejection of the Election Petition of the Appellant vide the impugned order in terms of the stipulation of Section 80 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951.

The plea further purports to the sequence of events wherein the appellants nomination was rejected "unfairly" and "in a partisan manner" that led to filing of the earlier SLP preferred before the Supreme Court, which was in effect dismissed on May 9, 2019.

Ex-BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav had approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Returning Officer to reject his nomination as from Varanasi constituency, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seeking re-election.

In 2017, Yadav had uploaded a video in social media where he complained that poor quality food was being served to personnels guarding the Indo-Pak border.

This led to a huge furore and a court martial enquiry was held against him, which culminated in his dismissal on grounds of making false complaints in media.

Yadav had initially announced that he would take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi as an independent candidate.