In a big blow to former BSF jawaan Tej Bahadur Yadav, the Supreme Court today rejected his plea against the Election Commission’s rejection of his nomination papers. The SC bench comprsisng Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, and justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjeev Khanna, said, “We don’t find any merit to entertain this petition.” With that the plea was dismissed.
Yadav had first filed his papers as an independent candidate on April 23. Later when he was roped in by the Samajwadi Party to be their candidate in the general elections from the Varanasi parliamentary constituency, he filed his papers again on April 29 which was the last day for filing nominations.
However, the Returning Officer rejected his nomination on May 1 citing a rule under Section 9 and 33(3) of the Representation of People Act, 1951. According to these provision, a person who has been dismissed from government service over the last five years cannot contest an election unless they produce a certificate in the prescribed form from their former employer stating that the grounds of dismissal were not due to “corruption or disloyalty to the state.”
In a statement, Returning Officer Surendra Singh said, “Shri Tej Bahadur has stated that he has been dismissed from government service on April 19, 2017. Five years has not elapsed and his nomination paper is neither accompanied by a certificate issued in the prescribed manner to the effect that he has not been dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the state, nor he has been able to produce any such certificate by 11 am of May 1, 2019. Therefore, the nomination paper… is hereby rejected.”
Yadav for his part maintained that he was given limited time to produce the document, however somehow managed to get it in time, but was still barred from contesting. He moved SC against the EC’s decision. On Wednesday, the SC directed the EC to look into Yadav’s grievance. Yadav further submitted that he had produced his dismissal letter while filing his nomination and that this letter clearly states that he was dismissed for alleged indiscipline and not corruption and disloyalty. Yadav therefore submitted that no further certificate of grounds for dismissal was necessary. However, on Thursday Yadav’s plea was dismissed.