The Supreme Court on Friday postponed the hearing of former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi’s plea challenging the election of Samajwadi Party’s Ram Bhual Nishad from the Sultanpur Lok Sabha seat to September 30
Gandhi lost the 2024 elections to Nishad by 43,174 votes.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan granted senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, representing Gandhi, additional time to submit a detailed analysis on the limitation provisions in other special statutes. Gandhi is also contesting the 45-day deadline for filing election petitions.
In her appeal, Gandhi challenged the Allahabad High Court’s August 14 decision to dismiss her election petition due to its being filed beyond the statutory 45-day period. The Lucknow bench of the high court ruled that since the petition exceeded the time limit stipulated for challenging election results, it could not be considered on its merits.
Gandhi argued that Nishad withheld important information about his criminal history, revealing only eight out of 12 cases in his affidavit. She maintained that this omission impacted voters’ rights to be fully informed, and the delay in her filing should be excused. However, the high court rejected this argument, citing Sections 81 and 86 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, along with Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Civil Procedure Code, as grounds for dismissing the time-barred petition.
