SC to hear plea by sacked BSF constable against rejection of election plea against Modi on May 22

SC cancels Monday's sitting of CJI S A Bobde's bench

The Supreme Court has cancelled sitting of a virtual court presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde, on Monday.

According to a circular issued on Sunday, all the matters listed on Monday would now be taken up on May 22.

Among other cases, the court was scheduled to hear on Monday a plea by Tej Bahadur, a sacked BSF constable, against the Allahabad High Court's order that had dismissed his election petition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Tej Bahadur's nomination papers were rejected as the Samajwadi Party candidate in Varanasi constituency in Lok Sabha polls.

He challenged validity of the High Court's judgement of December 6, 2019. The High Court has dismissed his election petition as having no locus and further that he was neither a registered voter nor the resident of Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.

In a special leave petition, he contended that his nomination papers were rejected by the returning officer under "illegitimate pressure" from BJP.

"The officer acted in arbitrary manner and the High Court also committed grave error by ignoring the fact when any person filed nomination in a constituency and his candidature has been rejected, then he has locus to file election petition," his plea contended.

The petitioner sought a direction to set aside the rejection of his nomination papers on May 1, 2019 also action against the returning officer for misuse of his official powers.

The petitioner was sacked from the BSF after a video in which he showed alleged poor quality of foods served to jawans went viral on social media networking sites.