The Supreme Court has dismissed a review petition filed by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis against its October 2019 verdict directing him to face trial for suppressing information about two pending forgery and criminal defamation cases in his 2014 election documents.
“We find no ground to interfere in the review petitions. The same are dismissed,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra observed in an order dated February 18 and published on Tuesday.
The Bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, had reserved the case for orders on February 18 itself.
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Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, for Mr. Fadnavis, had earlier asked for a stay of the trial court proceedings, but was refused by the Bench.
The review petition was filed against the Bench’s judgment on October 1 last year directing a Nagpur court to continue with the trial against Mr. Fadnavis under Section125-A of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, 1951.
The October 2019 judgment had come in an appeal filed by Satish Ukey, a lawyer, against a Bombay High Court decision that had set aside a Sessions Court go-ahead to try Mr. Fadnavis for violation of the RP Act.
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The October judgment had held that a “contesting candidate is mandated to furnish information concerning the cases in which a Competent Court has taken cognisance along with the cases in which charges have been framed”.
The Supreme Court had interpreted Section 33-A of the 1951 Act to hold that “information” to be disclosed by a candidate includes cases of which a court had already taken cognisance.
Mr. Rohatgi had argued that Section 33A was wrongly involved in his case.
The Supreme Court had held that the election affidavit under Form 26 of the Conduct of Election Rules of 1961, submitted to the poll officer along with the nomination papers, should contain details of not only cases in which charges had been filed but also those which had been taken cognisance.