Gujarat High Court dismissed a petition seeking action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for filing a defective affidavit and concealing his marital status while filing his nomination papers for 2012 Assembly Elections in Gujarat.
The one-judge Bench of acting Chief Justice (ACJ) of Gujarat high court, Justice VM Sahai rejected the petition on Friday and upheld the order of the Sessions court, which had dismissed the petition on the ground of delay in lodging the complaint.
Justice Sahai said the court can’t work on assumption that the petitioner had no knowledge about the offence prior to 2014.
In 2014, the petitioner Nishant Verma, a member of Aam Adami Party, had moved a magisterial court seeking action against Modi. According to the petition, Modi had in his nomination form to contest from Vadodara Parliamentary constituency revealed his marital status and mentioned Jashodaben as his wife. He had not done so in his previous affidavit in 2012, where he had kept the space against marital status as blank. This, petitioner claimed, amounted to concealing information and sought action against Modi under the provisions of Representation of People (RP) Act.
Verma filed a criminal complaint in a magisterial court demanding an FIR be lodged against Modi and PK Jadeja, election officer.
The court rejected the complaint stating that though an offence has been committed but cognizance can’t be taken since the complaint was lodged after a delay of one year.