Supreme Court to hear plea against election of Fadnavis on July 23

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on July 23 plea seeking the disqualification of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis allegedly for not disclosing in his 2014 election affidavit two cases that were pending against him then relating to alleged cheating and defamation.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose directed the listing of the matter for final hearing on July 23 even as senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi told the court that there was no need to disclose those cases as charges had not been framed in them.

Mukul Rohatgi appeared for Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis.

Advocate Ranjeeta Rohatgi, assisting Mukul Rohatgi in the matter, said that only those cases were required to mentioned in the affidavit at the time of the filing of nomination papers in which charges have been framed and punishment upon conviction was more than two years.

Maharashtra lawyer Satish Ukey had moved the top court seeking that Mr Fadnavis be disqualified for not making full and complete disclosure of information about criminal cases pending against him by suppressing information about two pending cases.

Ukey has contended that the chief minister had held back information on two cases of alleged cheating and defamation. On December 13 last year, the Supreme Court had sought Fadnavis’s response on the petition by Ukey, who had moved the top court challenging a Bombay HC order.