Will reply to SC notice: CMO

Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ office has said he would soon file an appropriate response to the Supreme Court’s notice to him on a plea seeking annulment of his election to the state Assembly for alleged non-disclosure of pending criminal cases against him.

The court had asked Mr Fadnavis to submit his say on the plea. The apex court’s notice was whether or not to admit the plea, the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said in a statement. “An appropriate response will be filed to the notice. Mr Fadnavis had filed all details about cases against him in the election affidavit in 2014. The petitioner had moved the high court, which dismissed the case, calling it baseless,” it said.

Earlier on Thursday, a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S.K. Kaul and K.M. Joseph — while hearing an appeal of one Satish Ukey against the high court order dismissing his plea seeking annulment of Mr Fadnavis’ election to the Maharashtra Assembly on the ground of alleged non-disclosure of all pending criminal cases against him in his nomination papers — sought the response of the chief minister on an appeal filed against a Bombay high court order sought.

 This case is related to Mr Fadnavis’ affidavit to the Election Commission at the time of the 2014 Assembly elections. Mr Ukey is claiming that Mr Fadnavis omitted two criminal charges, one reportedly of forgery, from his affidavit. Mr Fadnavis and his supporters have denied this many times.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan asked the chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to come clean on all the criminal cases pending against him. In a statement, Mr Chavan said Mr Fadnavis should make public all the criminal cases against him, including the two he had reportedly not declared in his 2014 election affidavit. “There are 22 criminal cases, of which charges have been framed in one case,” said Mr Chavan.