Chhattisgarh HC rejects Congress MLA Devendra Yadav's plea to dismiss election petition over concealed criminal history

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh high court has rejected the application moved by Congress MLA Devendra Yadav for the dismissal of the election petition filed by former Vidhan Sabha Speaker and senior BJP leader Prem Prakash Pandey.
In a revelation during the hearing on the election petition filed by the BJP leader, it was disclosed that the Congress MLA had been declared absconding in a criminal case pending before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Bilaspur, pertaining to offences punishable under Sections 127 and 147 of the Indian Penal Code.
Likewise, in the case pending before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Raipur, for offences punishable under Sections 186, 332, 427, and 147 of the IPC, a fresh bailable warrant has been issued.
On these grounds, the high court Single Bench Judge, Justice Rakesh Mohan Pandey, on Friday rejected the Congress MLA’s application requesting the dismissal of the election petition filed by Pandey.
In January 2024, the former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and former Minister of the Chhattisgarh Government, Prem Prakash Pandey, filed an election petition before the Chhattisgarh high court through counsels Shailendra Shukla and Debashish Tiwari.
In the petition, Pandey challenged the election of Devendra Yadav as a member of the Legislative Assembly from the Bhilai constituency. The challenge is based on the allegation that Yadav concealed his criminal history in the affidavit filed before the Election Commission of India, specifically hiding the fact that he was declared a criminal by a court in Raipur.
In response, Yadav filed an application seeking to dismiss the election petition on technical grounds.
After hearing senior counsel Dr. N. K. Shukla for Pandey and counsel B. P. Sharma for Yadav, the High Court found that Yadav failed to disclose that he was declared an absconder in a criminal case pending before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Bilaspur.
Similarly, he also hid the fact that new bailable warrants were issued against him in a case pending before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Raipur.
Based on this, the court rejected Yadav's application, noting that such non-disclosure goes to the root of the matter and the issues involved in the present election petition are significant and cannot be dismissed at the preliminary stage. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 31, 2024.