The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea of former BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav challenging the rejection of his nomination by the Election Commission from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said, “We don’t find any merit to entertain this petition.”
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On May 1, Yadav’s candidature was rejected by the returning officer after he failed to submit a certificate on whether or not he was dismissed from the service for corruption or disloyalty to the government.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Yadav, said his client was being harassed for complaining about food when he was in the Border Security Force (BSF).
Samajwadi Party had fielded Yadav as its candidate against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi on April 29. Prior to that, he was in the fray as an independent candidate.
Prime Minister Modi was elected from Varanasi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, defeating AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal by a margin of over 3.37 lakh votes.
Varanasi will go to polls in the last phase of the general elections on May 19. The counting of votes will be held on May 23.