New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to consider the plea of former IPS officer Debashish Dhar, who was given ticket by BJP to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Birbhum in West Bengal. The former IPS officer had challenged the cancellation of his nomination papers in the Supreme Court. Dhar’s nomination papers as BJP candidate were canceled after he failed to submit ‘no dues certificate’.
Let us tell you that Debashish Dhar had recently resigned as an IPS officer. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and KV Vishwanathan said that any interference at this stage would mean disrupting the election process, which it does not want to do. The top court refused to accept the plea of any bias by the returning officer against Dhar and said that he had acted in good faith.
Senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, appearing in the Supreme Court on behalf of Dhar, said that no demand was raised at the time of resignation. The Supreme Court said that accepting the resignation does not mean that there are no dues. After this Gupta sought permission to withdraw the case and contact the Election Commission. This case was withdrawn.
The District Election Office canceled the candidature of the former IPS officer citing technical grounds. In his place, BJP nominated senior party leader Debtanu Bhattacharya, who filed his nomination. Dhar was kept on mandatory waitlist for the 2021 assembly elections following the death of five people in the Sitalkuchi shooting in Cooch Behar district. Elections in Birbhum are to be held on May 13, in which TMC’s Shatabdi Roy is the main rival against the BJP.
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Tags: Loksabha Election 2024, Loksabha Elections, Supreme Court
FIRST PUBLISHED: April 30, 2024, 20:29 IST