The Patna High Court today set aside the election of Chhedi Paswan, the BJP Lok Sabha MP from Sasaram (reserved) parliamentary constituency, for "suppressing" details of criminal cases pending against him.
A bench of Justice Kishore Kumar Mandal held Paswan's election as "null and void" on a petition filed by Ganga Mishra, a voter, challenging the election on the ground that the latter (Paswan) "suppressed" information with regard to criminal cases pending against him while filing the election affidavit.
Paswan had defeated the then Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in 2014 general elections.
Appearing for Paswan, advocate Sanjay Kumar Manu contended that his client did not hide any information as rules suggest that a candidate has to mention in the nomination papers only those cases in which either the candidate has been convicted for more than two years or where charges have been framed.
The cases about which it was said that Paswan did not mention deliberately, the fact is that he had neither been convicted for more than two years nor charges had been framed against him at the time of filing of nomination papers, Manu argued.
Talking to reporters after the judgement, the MP's lawyer said he would challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.
