NEW DELHI (TIP): The Supreme Court on October 15 dismissed a petition seeking initiation of proceedings against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly concealing information about his marital status during 2012 assembly polls.

A bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar did not find merit in the plea filed by Ahmadabad resident Nishant Varma who moved SC after the Gujarat HC order refused to entertain his plea to proceed against Modi.

The complaint was filed in April 2014 when Modi while filing his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections had mentioned the name of his spouse in the affidavit.

After a brief hearing, the apex court asked how a man could be punished for disclosing the name of his spouse at a later stage.

The petitioner alleged that in 2012, Modi, contesting the state assembly election from Maninagar constituency, had left the space of spouse blank, which amounted to concealing information and hence action should be taken against him under the provisions of Representation of People (RP) Act.

Soon after Modi’s affidavit in the 2014 general election, Verma had filed a criminal complaint in a magisterial court demanding an FIR be lodged against Modi and P K Jadeja, the election officer.

The court rejected the complaint while stating that though an offence has been committed but cognizance can’t be taken since the complaint was lodged after a delay of one year and four months. He then approached the HC which also refused to entertain the plea.