HC to examine on Sept 4 if election petition against PM Modi is worth hearing

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday decided to examine next month if a petition challenging the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Varanasi Lok sabha seat is worth hearing at all.

A bench of Justice M K Gupta slated September 4 to hear arguments on the maintainability of the the election petition, filed by former Border Security Force soldier Tej Prakash Yadav.

Yadav had filed his nomination paper as Samajwadi Party candidate from Varanasi parliamentary seat, but had failed to contest the election as his papers were rejected by the returning officer.  Appearing for Prime Minister Modi, Additional Solicitor General Satpal Jain argued before the court that the election petition was not maintainable under order 7 rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code as well as section 86 of the Representation of the People Act.

Order 7, rule 11 of the CPC enlists "non-disclosure of a proper cause of action" in the plaint to a court as one of the grounds to reject it.

Accordingly, Jain submitted to the court that the plaint against the prime minister should be dismissed because it discloses no valid ground for filing it.

The law officer also sought dismissal of the petition under the provisions of section 86, saying it does not even allege any electoral malpractice by the candidate winning the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat.

The court, however, fixed September 4 to hear the question of petition's maintainability in detail.

Yadav's nomination paper to fight the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi was rejected by the district returning officer on May 1 following his failure to submit a certificate testifying that he was not sacked for either corruption or disloyalty.  Yadav has filed the election petition, alleging his nomination paper was wrongly rejected by the returning officer.

As a result of the rejection of his nomination paper, he was not able to contest the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi against Prime Minister Modi, which, he said, was his constitutional right.

He has requested the court to declare the prime minister's election from Varanasi as null and void.