Plea challenging Jyotiraditya Scindia’s election to Rajya Sabha withdrawn

NEW DELHI: A petition challenging the election to the Rajya Sabha of Union Minister for Steel Jyotiraditya M Scindia was withdrawn from the Supreme Court on Monday. The matter was listed before a bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice Pankaj Mithal, who refused to entertain the plea.

The plea was filed by the petitioner Govind Singh. The said Special Leave Petition had been filed against an order vide which a review petition challenging the framing of an issue in the election petition filed against Scindia had been dismissed. The concerned High Court had previously framed an issue in the said Election Petition to the effect that whether mere registration of an FIR constitutes a "pending criminal case" liable to be disclosed in the nomination papers of a prospective candidate under the Representation of People's Act, 1951.

The Supreme Court had previously too refused to interfere in the framing of the issue. Scindia was represented before the Court by Senior Advocates NK Mody and Siddharth Bhatnagar, with advocate Fareha Ahmed Khan and a team from Karanjawala and Co-led by Tahira Karanjawala, Principal Associate. The Petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Anoop George Chaudhary.

The Supreme Court had earlier refused to interfere with the Madhya Pradesh High Court order which dismissed a plea challenging nomination of Jyotiraditya Scindia for concealing information about criminal cases pending against him in nomination papers for election to the Rajya Sabha. Govind Singh, the petitioner, has challenged the Madhya Pradesh High Court order which rejected his plea challenging nomination papers filed by Jyotiraditya Scindia.

According to the petitioner, Jyotiraditya Scindia had concealed information about criminal cases pending against him while filing his nomination papers for election to the Rajya Sabha.