LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court on Friday issued a notice to PM Narendra Modi on a petition filed by sacked Border Security Force (BSF) jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav, challenging his election as Varanasi MP in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Hearing the petition, Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta posted the matter for next hearing on August 21, 2019.
The petitioner, who was fielded by the Samajwadi Party against the Prime Minister from Varanasi, had failed to contest the election as his nomination paper was rejected by the returning officer (RO) on May 1 following his failure to submit a certificate that he was not sacked from the force for either corruption or disloyalty.
In the petition, Yadav had claimed that his nomination papers were wrongly rejected by the Returning Officer unde alleged pressure from PM Modi. This has amounted to an infringement of his constitutional right as he was denied the opportunity to contest Lok Sabha election from Varanasi.
Further, Yadav contended that he was not even given an opportunity of presenting his side before rejection of his papers. He took a plea that since Modi had not given details of his family in his nomination papers, his nomination should have been rejected as well but that did not happen. The complainant requested the court to declare PM Modi’s election from Varanasi null and void.