Petition against PM Modi for alleged poll code breach rejected by Gujarat HC

The petition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi filed by an Aam Aadmi Party worker for alleged poll breach during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, has been rejected by the Gujarat High Court on 5 November.

Justice J B Pardiwala while upholding the lower court order rejected admission of the petition, saying, "I am not impressed with your submission that the magistrate did not follow proper procedure while dismissing your petition."

He said, "As per my interpretation, the magistrate has power to reject and it was done in an appropriate manner, so I hereby reject it (petition)."

The petition was filed by Aam Aadmi Party worker Nishant Verma against the verdict of the local court, which in May this year had dismissed his plea seeking legal action against Modi for allegedly breaching the poll code last year.

On 30 April, last year, when the voting was underway on 26 Lok Sabha seats of Gujarat, Modi, the then Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP, had addressed a press conference immediately after he voted in a school at Ranip area of Ahmedabad and displayed his party's symbol lotus, according to the petition.

Modi also took a selfie from his mobile phone while holding a replica of the party's symbol -- lotus, it said.

Verma had filed the plea before the high court against the order of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Ahmedabad Rural Court S R Sinh dismissing his plea by holding that the probe of the city Crime Branch, which had filed closure report giving a clean chit to Modi, was just and proper.

-PTI