Petition against Narendra Modi's election from Varanasi deferred till Sep 11

Allahabad, July 10: The Allahabad High Court today deferred till September 11 the hearing on a petition challenging the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.

Justice V K Shukla deferred the hearing on the request of the counsel for petitioner Ajay Rai, a Congress MLA, who had contested the Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi against Modi.

The petitioner's counsel Jitendra Kumar had submitted that due to disturbances caused by election for the High Court Bar Association, which took place yesterday, "preparation for hearing of the case has not been done".

The court noted with dissatisfaction that on the last date of hearing in the matter on April 24, it had been made clear that "as a last opportunity, eight weeks and no more time is accorded to learned counsel for election-petitioner to file rebuttal".

The court had granted eight weeks' time to Rai's counsel for filing of rebuttal to the objections raised by advocates appearing for the respondent.

"Application that has been moved today, most surprisingly does not pray for further time for filing of objection and confines the prayer for the effect that date may be fixed next for hearing on pending application," the court remarked.

The court added,"Once request has been made for adjournment of the case on personal ground of learned counsel for the election-petitioner, such request is accepted".

The election petition was filed in June last year, barely a month after results for the Lok Sabha polls were declared.

Modi won the Varanasi seat by a huge margin, defeating his nearest rival Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party by a margin of 3.71 lakh votes. Rai finished third and ended up losing his deposit.

PTI