Supreme Court dismisses former BSF jawan’s plea on rejection of Varanasi Lok Sabha poll nomination

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea by former BSF jawan Tej Bahadur Yadav, who claimed his nomination to contest from Varanasi in the Lok Sabha election was rejected to orchestrate a “walkover” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A Bench led by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde said the Allahabad High Court was right in rejecting the former jawan’s claims earlier.

The Supreme Court had reserved the petition for judgment on November 18. On that day, Mr. Tej Bahadur Yadav’s lawyer Pradeep Kumar Yadav could not produce evidence on record to show he had asked the Returning Officer (RO) for time to produce his dismissal letter — to be appended with his nomination papers — as proof to show he was not dismissed from service for reasons of corruption, disloyalty, etc. He had repeatedly urged the court to adjourn the case and give him more time.

“We don’t want to carry on like this with the matter, the respondent's [Prime Minister] is the only office of its kind in India,” Chief Justice Bobde had replied.

The former BSF personnel had argued that his dismissal from the service came after he complained about the quality of food and was not for any act of corruption or disloyalty. He had found himself out of the fight after the RO concluded that his nomination papers were faulty. The RO’s rejection was on the ground that he did not furnish records to prove that his dismissal from the BSF was not brought about by corruption or disloyalty to the State.