Supreme Court: The 3-judge bench of Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, JJ allowed the petition seeking cancellation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s membership of the state Legislative Council for allegedly concealing a pending criminal case against him. Stating that it will consider the matter, the bench said it will fix a date for hearing the matter.
The petition, which was filed yesterday, alleged that there was a criminal case against the JD(U) leader wherein he was accused of killing a local Congress leader Sitaram Singh, and injuring four others ahead of Lok Sabha by-election to the Barh constituency in 1991. The petitioner has also sought a direction to the CBI to register an FIR against Kumar in the case. He sought cancellation of Kumar’s membership as per the Election Commission’s 2002 order stating it is mandatory for candidates to disclose criminal cases against them in their affidavits annexed to nomination papers. He claimed that the Bihar Chief Minister did not disclose the criminal case that was pending against him in affidavits since 2004, except for 2012.
Source: PTI
