The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed former Border Security Force (BSF) jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav’s petition questioning the Election Commission (EC) decision to reject his nomination papers from Varanasi, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a contestant.

“We do not find any grounds to entertain the plea,” a bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna held.

Yadav had challenged the returning officer’s decision to reject his nomination papers and alleged it was intended to give a walkover to the Prime Minister.

The EC counsel, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, opposed Yadav’s plea and called it premature.

He said such a petition could be filed only after the polls were over and it was not maintainable. He referred to various SC verdicts that election petitions cannot be admitted while the poll process is underway.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Yadav, countered the argument and said that as per an earlier verdict a petition could be filed during the enforcement of the model code of conduct. But he later sought liberty to file a petition after polling is over.

At this, the bench said, “We have done what we could have done. We find no grounds to entertain this petition.”

The top court had on Wednesday asked the EC to examine Yadav’s grievances. His nomination papers, filed as a Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate, were rejected on May 1.

The EC official held that Yadav had failed to furnish a certificate, as mandated under the Representation of the People Act, that he had not been “dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the state”.

Yadav hit the headlines after a video he posted complaining about the food served to troops went viral in 2017.

He was dismissed from the BSF for breaching service conditions.

The Samajwadi Party had initially named Shalini Yadav as its candidate against Modi. Then it replaced her with the sacked BSF jawan but was finally forced to revert to its original choice.

First Published: May 09, 2019 22:26 IST