HC dismisses election petition against PM

The Allahabad High Court on Friday dismissed the petition that had challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election from the Varanasi parliamentary constituency.

Justice Manoj Gupta passed the order on an election petition filed by Tej Bahadur Yadav, a dismissed CRPF constable who was declared by the Samajwadi Party as its Varanasi candidate in the last Lok Sabha elections.

He could not contest the elections as his papers were rejected by the returning officer.

Dismissing the plea, Justice Manoj Gupta held that petitioner Tej Bahadur Yadav was not a candidate in the elections.

Therefore, he had no locus to challenge the election of a candidate who was declared successful in the polls, the court said.

Nomination papers of Yadav were rejected by the returning officer following his failure to submit a certificate about his dismissal.

Earlier, Satyapal Jain, a senior advocate appearing on behalf of PM Modi, submitted that the plea was not maintainable under Order 7 Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code and Section 86 of the Representation of the People Act as no cause had been explained and there was no allegation of malpractice.

Tej Bahadur had filed the petition alleging that his nomination papers were wrongly rejected by the returning officer.

He had requested the court to declare the election of PM Narendra Modi null and void.