In a huge setback, Supreme Court on Tuesday said that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will face trial for filing false election affidavit during 2014 state assembly elections.
Earlier, it was alleged that CM Fadnavis failed to declare the two criminal cases registered against him in the poll affidavit.
However, the Supreme Court paved way for prosecuting him regarding the same while overruling the court orders – a trial court and Bombay High Court, had cleared him.
This comes ahead of 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections which are scheduled on October 21 while CM Fadnavis is all set to file his nomination from Nagpur South West today. However, the trial against CM Fadnavis won’t have an impact on him with respect to the assembly polls.
The revival of the complaint against CM Fadnavis was done by a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The bench said that the case will be heard by a magistrate’s court.
CM Fadnavis will be tried under section 125A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the bench said. The concealing of information or giving a false one on the election affidavit is punishable by six months jail, fine or both.
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Two cases of alleged cheating and forgery were filed against Mr Fadnavis in 1996 and 1998, but charges were not framed.
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