The Supreme Court swept aside a cloud of uncertainty on Wednesday, standing firmly behind the Bombay High Court’s move to erase unclear allegations from an election petition challenging Nitin Gadkari’s 2019 Lok Sabha victory in Nagpur.
A Bench led by Justices Surya Kant and NK Singh didn’t mince words: accusations of non-disclosure levelled at the Union Road Transport Minister were too flimsy and lacking in concrete details to survive. The judges made it plain — without solid facts, the allegations were little more than hollow noise.
The Court also took aim at other complaints lodged against Gadkari, including those regarding supposed overspending and curious conduct during mock EVM trials. These charges, too, were deemed “broad, vague, and insufficient” to influence the outcome of an election or give any tribunal firm ground to stand on.
“In the absence of specific particulars or material evidence,” the Court noted, “the allegations crumble under scrutiny and cannot form the basis of a serious challenge.”
The legal battle stems from petitions filed by Nafis Khan, a voter from Nagpur, and another candidate who faced Gadkari in the 2019 polls. While Gadkari’s full attempt to have the case thrown out didn’t succeed back in 2021, the Nagpur Bench did agree to surgically remove the more amorphous parts of the accusations. Khan later escalated the fight to the Supreme Court, only to find the apex court siding with the High Court’s cautious pruning.
Yet, while cutting through the noise, the Supreme Court also sounded a note of urgency. Observing that the underlying election petitions have been gathering dust since 2019, the judges pressed the High Court to pick up the pace and bring the lingering matters to a close.
“The passage of time must not eclipse the importance of these proceedings,” the Court urged, underlining the need for swift resolution.
Thus, while vague words were struck down, the real fight still waits to be fully heard — and now, the clock is ticking louder than ever.
