NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the petition of a sacked Border Security Force (BSF) personnel against the cancellation of his nomination papers to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.The top court upheld the Allahabad High Court verdict of dismissing the plea of the sacked jawan, Tej Bahadur Yadav.
“Section 83 of the Act allows only an elector or candidate to maintain an Election Petition. Impliedly, it bars any other person from filing an Election Petition. In this sense the Election Petition can also be set to be barred by Section 81 read with Section 86(1) of the Act,” the apex court said.
“We are, therefore, of the view that the present Election Petition has been rightly nipped in the bud. The Civil Appeal is, therefore, dismissed,” the court added.
The top court in its order further said, “At this stage we would like to record that the material facts are not in dispute. It is not in dispute that the appellant’s nomination paper was not accompanied by a certificate from the Election Commission, further, he was served a notice to cure the defect. He did not do so.”
“It is settled that for a person to make claim that he was duly nominated, his nomination paper must comply with statutory requirements which govern the filing of nomination papers and not otherwise,” the court added.
The SC also said, “We find that the averments in the petition do not disclose that the appellant has a cause of action which invest him with right to sue. It is settled that where a person has no interest at all, or no sufficient interest to support a legal claim or action he will have no locus standi to sue. The entitlement to sue or locus standi is an integral part of cause of action.”