Fadnavis to face trial as SC rejects his review plea in ‘concealing info' case

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 3

Former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will have to face prosecution for allegedly concealing certain pending criminal cases against him while filing his nomination papers for the 2014 state Assembly polls.

A three-judge Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra has rejected his petition seeking review of its October 1, 2019 order that had said the issue had to be decided during trial.

The order was passed on February 18.

“This will seal my fate. It is an important question as it affects Article 21. This is a matter which requires a re-look,” senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi had told the Bench on behalf of Fadnavis.

The issue will have far-reaching consequences for other candidates fighting election, he had submitted.

A candidate could be prosecuted for non-disclosure of pending cases where charges had been framed and where he or she had been convicted, he said.

In his election affidavit filed in 2014, Fadnavis had failed to disclose the pendency of two criminal cases against him. The two cases of alleged cheating and forgery were filed against Fadnavis in 1996 and 1998 but charges had not been framed.

In a setback to Fadanvis, the Supreme Court had on October 1 last year quashed the Bombay High Court’s verdict paving the way for his prosecution for not disclosing two pending criminal cases in his 2014 affidavit.

“We unhesitatingly arrive at the conclusion that the order of the trial court upheld by the high court by the impugned judgment and order dated May 3, 2018 is legally not tenable and the same deserves to be set aside which we hereby do,” it had said.

While allowing petitioner Satish Ukey’s petition challenging a Bombay High Court’s May 3, 2018 order dismissing his petition, the Bench had taken into account the “clear averment” made in the complaint against Fadnavis that he had “knowledge of the two cases against him”, which he did not mention in his affidavit filed with his nomination papers.

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