The Supreme Court Thursday dismissed the sacked ex-BSF Jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav’s’ plea challenging the Election Commission’s decision of scrapping his nomination for the Lok Sabha polls.
On May 6, the SP candidate had moved the Supreme Court terming the decision of the poll panel discriminatory and unreasonable.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, “We don’t find any merit to entertain this petition.”
The Samajwadi Party candidate, who had filed his nomination on April 29 from Varanasi, is an ex-BSF jawan, who was sacked from the Army in 2017 for violation of rules and was previously jailed four times for misbehaving with seniors. Tej Bahadur was fielded against PM Narendra Modi from the Varanasi constituency in the Lok Sabha elections.
Tej Bahadur Yadav’s nomination papers were rejected on May 1, by the EC as he had goofed up on the paperwork. Yadav’s candidature was rejected by the returning officer after he failed to submit a certificate on whether or not he was dismissed from the service for corruption or disloyalty to the government.
The returning officer had claimed that since Bahadur was dismissed from the government service on April 19, 2017, five years period from the date of such dismissal has not elapsed, in terms of section 9 of the Representation of the People Act 1951.
According to section 9 of the Representation of the People Act 1951, a person who has held an office under the Government of India or under the Government of any State and has been dismissed for corruption or for disloyalty to the country shall be disqualified for a period of five years from the date of such dismissal.
In 2017, Yadav had uploaded a video in social media where he complained that poor quality food was being served to Army personnel. This led to a huge furore and resulted in a court-martial enquiry against him, which further culminated in his dismissal on grounds of making false complaints in media.
Yadav, who was, recently, caught on camera agreeing to kill PM Modi for money, had initially announced that he will take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi as an independent candidate. Later, Samajwadi Party announced its support to him and fielded him as its candidate.
The Varanasi constituency represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi votes in the last phase of elections scheduled on May 19. Results of the Lok Sabha elections would be declared on the May 23.
