Judge recuses himself from hearing petition on 2014 bypolls

An Allahabad High Court justice has recused himself from hearing an election petition challenging the 2014 bye-election of a BJP MLA from Lucknow East Assembly seat.

Justice Surendra Vikram Singh Rathore of the High Court's Lucknow bench had yesterday sought that the matter should be brought before the chief justice for nomination of another bench.

A petition was filed by Manendra Nath Rai alleging that his nomination was "illegally" rejected on technical grounds by the then returning officer during election process.

"Since the petitioner is not satisfied with the progress of the election petition, I recuse myself from hearing this petition," justice Rathore said.
 

The returning officer and another candidate, BJP's Ashutosh Tandon, have been made respondents in the matter.