The three-judge bench of Supreme Court comprising of Chief Justice S. A. Bobde, Justice A. S. Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian dismissed a plea filed by Tej Bahadur who was ex-border Security Force (BSF) Constable, in which he challenged the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi in Lok Sabha elections held in 2019.
He filed the plea before Allahabad HC to set aside Modi’s election since his own nomination as candidate of samajwadi party was rejected by election commission, where the court dismissed his petition and held the question of election of PM Modi since Tej Bahadur was neither a candidate nor an elector.
After dismissal from Allahabad HC Tej Bahadur approached the SC. First, he filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Varanasi Constituency and later entered his nomination as a Samajwadi Party candidate. His nomination was rejected by the returning officer on the grounds of failure to provide a certificate clarifying that his dismissal was not on grounds of disloyalty or corruption.