SC asks ECI to examine Tej Bahadur Yadav's plea by tomorrow

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to examine by Thursday the plea filed by former BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav on the rejection of his nomination as a candidate from Varanasi in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Yadav was fielded as Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Prior to that, he was in the fray as an independent candidate.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justice Deepak Gupta told the ECI's advocate Rakesh Dwivedi to take instruction on the issue and inform the court by tomorrow the commission's view on Yadav's plea.

Through his plea, Yadav had sought direction to quash the Returning Officer's decision of cancelling his nomination as a candidate in the Lok Sabha elections.

Talking to media, Yadav's lawyer Prashant Bhushan said, "The Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission to examine the matter and decide on it by Thursday. The Supreme Court today heard the petition of Tej Bahadur Yadav, the jawan who was dismissed from service on the ground that he had complained about substandard food."

Bhushan continued, "I pointed out though that his dismissal order made it clear that he had not been dismissed for disloyalty or corruption, instead he was dismissed only for not agreeing to eat the food that was being given to him."

"Still, the Returning Officer insisted that he should produce a certificate from the election commission to the effect that he has not been dismissed on disloyalty or corruption," added Bhushan. "So the apex court has asked ECI to look into the matter and give its response by tomorrow and the case will be heard tomorrow."

On May 6, Yadav had filed a writ petition in the apex court against the rejection of his nomination from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, alleging foul play.

On May 1, Yadav's candidature was rejected after he failed to submit a certificate on whether or not he was dismissed from the service for corruption or disloyalty to the government based on directions from Returning Officer Surendra Singh.