The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the petition filed by the former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis. He had filed the petition to seek a review of SC’s earlier order under which the former CM was to be tried for not revealing the pending criminal cases against him, as per media reports.

The case against Fadnavis was filed in 2014 when the Bombay High Court lawyer Satish Ukey lodged a complaint against the then Maharashtra CM alleging that he failed to disclose details regarding two criminal cases pending against him in his election affidavit. These two cases pertained to alleged cheating and forgery which had been filed in 1996 and 1998, respectively, Moneycontrol reported.

In May 2016, the Sessions Court and later the Bombay High Court held that the former CM should not be prosecuted under section 125A of the Representation of People Act, which deals with penalty for filing false election affidavits.

In September 2019, a three-judge bench led by then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi had quashed the High Court ruling, observing it was not legally tenable. SC asked the trial court to resume the case against Fadnavis, who was still in power at that time.

SC, in its verdict, had held that the election affidavit under Form 26 of the Conduct of Election Rules of 1961, submitted to the poll officer along with the nomination papers, should have details of not only cases in which charges had been filed but also those which had been taken cognizance, The Hindu reported.

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