SC Adjourns Hearing On Plea Challenging PM Narendra Modi's Election From Varanasi

A Supreme Court Bench comprising of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, Justices AS Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy adjourned the matter by a period of 2 weeks after receiving the adjournment letter circulated by Yadav which sought for the matter to be adjourned by 4 weeks.

Senior Advocate Harish Salve and Advocate Satya Pal Jain were appearing for the Respondent.

The petition filed by former BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav had challenged the Allahabad High Court order passed on December 16, 2019 wherein the Court had dismissed the Election Petition of Yadav on grounds of locus standi. The plea states that the High Court 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.

The plea drawn by Advocate Pradeep Kumar and filed by Advocate Sanjeev Malhotra further avers that a grave error has been committed by the High Court by failing to take into contention the merits of the case and thereby, wrongly deciding the plea on "mere technical grounds" of Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The ex-BSF jawan had previously approached the Supreme Court, challenging the decision of the Returning Officer to reject his nomination from Varanasi constituency. A Bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had dismissed the petition due to lack of merit in the same.