In the much-talked about Modi selfie case, the Gujarat High Court on Thursday rejected review petition and upheld a lower court order. The review petition was filed by an Aam Adami Party (AAP) worker against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for alleged breach of the Model Code of Conduct during lok Sabha elections-2014 near a polling station in Ahmedabad.
Upholding the lower court order Justice JB Pardiwala said that the lower court had appropriately rejected the plea. Justice Pardiwala further said that he was not impressed with the submission that the magistrate did not follow proper procedure while dismissing the petition.
AAP worker Nishant Varma had filed the petition before the High Court against the order of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Ahmedabad Rural Court SR Singh, who dismissed his plea on the basis of the Ahmedabad Crime Branch’s closure report which gave a clean chit to Modi.
“As per my interpretation, the magistrate has power to reject and it was done in an appropriate manner, so I hereby reject the petition,” said Justice Pardiwala. The High Court had completed the hearing on last Friday (October 27) and reserved the order for the petition filed by Varma against the verdict of the local court. The local court had dismissed the petition in the month of May this year.
The petitioner was seeking legal action against Modi for alleged breach of code 0f conduct. According to him on the day of voting on April 30, 2014, the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had not only addressed a press conference near a polling station at Ranip area in Ahmedabad but also took a selfie from his mobile phone displaying BJP’s symbol ‘lotus’ after utilising his franchise to vote.
Hearing on the case was to be held in the court of Justice GR Udhwani on October 6, 2015. However Justice Udhwani recused himself from the case. Justice Udhavani had also recalled his order minutes after admitting the matter on September 28.