Supreme Court dismisses plea to defer Gautam Buddh Nagar poll

The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed a plea seeking the postponement of the Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar constituency, adjoining Delhi.

The plea sought that the poll, slated for Thursday in the third phase, be held afresh along in the remaining phases of Lok Sabha election following Congress candidate Ramesh Chander Tomar crossing over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the completion of the nomination process.

A bench of Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice Madan B. Lokur, while declining to entertain the plea, asked how the election could be denotified at this stage.

"Sorry it can't be done. We can't denotify the election," the court said as senior counsel Jitender Mohan Sharma contended that a fraud had been played on the people of the constituency.

Sharma appeared for the petitioner, Mukesh Yadav.

The court was told that after the date of withdrawal of nominations, Tomar continued to campaign till April 3 before he switched over to the BJP.

The court asked Sharma to read the prayers of his petition and tell whether court could issue any direction to denotify the election in Gautam Budha Nagar Lok Sabha seat.

Sharma told the court that the party system is recognised as an essence of democratic system and anti-defection law comes into operation after the date of nomination and withdrawal is over.

Referring to the cabinet system of government, he contended that the constitution too recognises the party system.