Telangana High Court Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan reserved orders in the election petition contesting the victory of BRS candidate BB Patil from the Zaheerabad Lok Sabha seat.
Congress candidate K Madan Mohan Rao, who lost to Patil in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, had filed the appeal.
Justice Bhuyan began hearing the petition after the Supreme Court referred the case back to the Telangana High Court after hearing Mohan Rao’s appeal of the single judge’s ruling on his election petition. Mohan Rao said that while Patil had a criminal case against him in Jharkhand, he failed to mention it in his election affidavit while filing his nomination papers.
After his election petition was dismissed by a single judge of the High Court, Mohan Rao filed a plea with the Supreme Court. He asserted that while the single judge did not offer an explanation for rejecting his plea, the order was also not posted on the HC website.
On June 15, the SC overturned the single judge’s ruling and sent the case back to the HC, directing both parties to appear before the Chief Justice. Haren Raval, senior counsel from the Supreme Court, appeared for BB Patil.