SC adjourns Maneka's plea against SP candidate's election till Sept 30

The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned former Union minister Maneka Gandhi's plea challenging Samajwadi Party's Ram Bhual Nishad's election from the Sultanpur Lok Sabha seat till September 30.

Gandhi lost to Nishad by a margin of 43,174 votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan gave senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Gandhi, time to file a detailed submission analysing the provision of limitation in other special statutes. Gandhi in a separate petition has challenged the limitation of 45 days imposed for filing an election petition.

In her appeal, Gandhi challenged the August 14 order of the Allahabad High Court dismissing her election petition challenging the election of Nishad for being time-barred.

The high court's Lucknow bench held the petition was filed after the deadline of 45 days, the statutory period for filing election petition before the high court, and hence the plea cannot be heard on merit.

Gandhi contended that Nishad had deprived the voters of their right to know his full criminal history and hence the delay in filing the petition should be condoned.

She argued that 12 criminal cases were pending against Nishad but he had given information on only eight in his affidavit.

Turning down Gandhi's plea, the high court had said, "This election petition being time-barred by Section 81 read with Section 86 of the Representation of People Act 1951 and Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code of Civil Procedure is liable to be dismissed.