The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s disqualification from the state legislative council for not disclosing a criminal case while filing election affidavits, PTI reported.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud dismissed the plea saying it found no merit in it.
The court’s ruling came after the Election Commission of India said Kumar had disclosed the case against him in 2012, Mint reported. “Election Rules say that he should declare it [criminal case] after the trial court takes cognisance of the case,” the bench said, adding that this had been done.
The public interest litigation was filed by advocate ML Sharma in July, according to PTI. He claimed Kumar did not disclose the criminal case against him in affidavits filed since 2004, barring 2012.
Sharma had alleged that there was a criminal case against the Janata Dal (United) chief in which he is accused of killing a local Congress leader and injuring four people ahead of a Lok Sabha bye-election in Bihar’s Barh constituency in 1991.
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