New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) The Supreme Court Friday dismissed former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy’s petition seeking registration of a criminal case against Congress President for allegedly submitting a false affidavit to the Election Commission in the 2004 general election.
In his petition, Swamy had pleaded for the court’s direction to the commission to lodge a complaint against Gandhi for allegedly giving wrong information to it about her educational qualifications, while filing her nomination papers from Rae Bareli constituency.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, rejected the petition observing that, “a stale issue could not be reopened.”
The bench, however, said it did not agree with the observations of the Allahabad High Court that Swamy had no locus standi to file the petition.
In his Special leave petition, Swamy said that Gandhi, in her affidavit to the commission, had said that she had graduated from Cambridge University, while “she had only pursued an English language certificate course at a teaching shop.”
He said that earlier he had brought it to the notice of the returning officer and wanted him to lodge the complaint, but the officer did not take any action.
Swamy said the high court too subsequently dismissed his writ petition for a direction to the commission to register a case against the Congress president