SC To Hear Advocate's Plea Seeking Maharashtra CM's Disqualification On July 23

The Supreme Court will be hearing Advocate Satish Uke's plea seeking disqualification of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as a Member of the Legislative Assembly on July 23.

Full bench of Chief justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose have scheduled the matter for final hearing.

Uke had appealed against the High Court's order rejecting his petition. He alleged that Chief Minister Fadnavis suppressed pending criminal cases against him while filing his nomination papers for the 2009 and 2014 Assembly elections thereby violating Representation of People's Act, 1951.

The petitioner had earlier filed a criminal application before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) in Nagpur alleging that the Maharashtra CM had 'misled the people' by concealing information about two pending criminal cases in the affidavit submitted along with his nomination papers.

However, in 2014, the ACJM rejected the application filed by Uke. The advocate then filed a criminal revision application in the Sessions court.

According to Uke, Fadnavis is one of the accused in a case under Sections 217, 218, 220, 425, 420, 466, 467, 468, 469, 471, 474, 109, 506B read with Section 34 of the IPC and a case under Section 500 of the IPC.

A notice was issued by the Additional Sessions Judge, however, there was some dispute regarding the order passed as there was confusion whether the issuance of the notice was to the non-applicant in the case i.e., Fadnavis, or to the Police Station Officer (PSO).

However, after hearing Uke's petition, the High Court concluded that the Chief Minister was not required to disclose the pendency of criminal cases against him. The two cases filed against the Chief Minister are over 20 years old and charges have not been framed.