SC junks plea for extension of time to file nomination from Varanasi LS seat
New Delhi, May 15: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a Tamil Nadu-based farmer leader's plea for an extension of deadline for filing nomination papers to contest from Varanasi Lok Sabha seat where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the fray, decrying the petition as "publicity interest litigation".
The prime minister filed his nomination papers from Varanasi parliamentary constituency on May 14, the last day for filing the papers, as a BJP candidate. The polling will take place on June 1.
"You want to withdraw, we can allow you to withdraw. If you want us to dismiss, we can dismiss it. These are all Publicity Interest Litigation,” a bench comprising justices Vikram Nath and Satish Chandra Sharma said.
Lawyer S Mahendran, appearing for P Ayyakannu, a native of Trichy in Tamil Nadu and President of the National South Indian River Interlinking Agriculturist Association, claimed that Ayyakannu was de-boarded from the Varanasi-bound train on May 10 by the railway security personnel when he was on his way to file nomination from the seat.
He said that even the prime minister filed his nomination papers on the last day and urged the court to ask the poll panel to extend the time for the same.
During the brief hearing, the bench asked as to why Ayyakannu wanted to contest from Varanasi and said the whole purpose of the petition seemed to get publicity.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
