Devendra Fadnavis seeks relook at judgement allowing prosecution for concealing criminal cases

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its October 1, 2019, judgement, saying allowing a candidate's prosecution for not disclosing in election affidavit a criminal case in which cognisance has been taken, would have far-reaching consequences.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Fadnavis, said a candidate can be prosecuted only if he had concealed criminal cases in which charges have been framed or the cases where he or she had been convicted.

He contended that if the charge was not framed, it could not have been covered under Section 33A(1) of the Representation of People Act.

He also contended that a candidate may not be aware of a court having taken cognisance of an offence just before the filing of the nomination paper.

He asked for having re-look at the judgement as it would have far-reaching consequences on other election candidates in future.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose wrapped up the proceedings and reserved its orders after hearing Rohatgi for about 30 minutes.

Fadnavis had allegedly concealed two pending criminal cases— one related to defamation (1996) and another related to cheating and forgery (1998) in which the court had already taken cognisance, in his affidavit filed along with his nomination papers for election as an MLA from Southwest Nagpur constituency in 2014.

The top court had in October 2019, set aside Bombay High Court's order of May 3, 2018, that had rejected a petition by advocate Satish Uke plea for action against Fadnavis.

The concealment of information to the election observer and the returning officer amounted to an offence under Section 125A of the Representation of People Act, 1951, Uke had contended.

Uke also claimed as per the Election Commission's clarification issued on September 26, 2012, details of all pending cases in which cognisance have been taken by a court have to be disclosed, irrespective of quantum of punishment or framing of charges.