SC dismisses plea filed by former IPS officer Debasish Dhar challenging rejection of nomination

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed, as withdrawn, the plea filed by former IPS officer Debasish Dhar, who was fielded by the BJP from West Bengal's Birbhum Lok Sabha constituency, challenging the rejection of his nomination papers.

Observing that the returning officer did not act in any malafide manner, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and K.V. Viswanathan said that entertaining a writ petition filed directly before the apex court would stall the election process.

Sensing the disinclination of the Bench to entertain the plea, senior advocate Nidhesh Gupta, appearing for Dhar, sought permission to withdraw the matter with liberty to approach the Election Commission of India (ECI).

In his petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, Dhar, who has recently resigned from service to join politics, contended that his nomination was rejected to give a walkover to the candidate of the ruling Trinamool Congress.

The plea, filed through advocate Ashutosh Kumar Sharma said that “non-allowance to submit the nomination application and rejecting the same is arbitrary, whimsical and depicts a perfect example of high handedness of the returning officer, which is required to be put under strict sanction".

Dhar's nomination was cancelled on April 26 on the ground that he could not furnish the “no dues” certificate from the West Bengal government following his resignation from service. In his place, senior BJP leader Debtanu Bhattacharya filed a nomination as the second candidate of the party from Birbhum constituency.