The Supreme Court is set to hear a plea seeking the cancellation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s membership of the state Legislative Council for allegedly concealing a pending criminal case against him.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar will hear the petition by advocate M L Sharma on Septmeber 11. Sharma also sought a direction to the CBI to register a case against Nitish.
The plea contended that there was a criminal case against the JD(U) leader wherein he was accused of killing local Congress leader Sitaram Singh, and injuring four others ahead of Lok Sabha by-election to the Barh constituency in 1991.
The plea says the Election Commission knew about Nitish’s criminal case, but did not cancel his membership of the House.
As per the Election Commission’s 2002 order, it is mandatory for candidates to disclose criminal cases against them in affidavits annexed to their nomination papers.
He claimed the Bihar chief minister did not disclose the criminal case that was pending against him in the affidavits since 2004, except for 2012.
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