Adopting a tough stand, the Allahabad high court as well as the Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday denied relief to three controversial politicians who had sought the courts' intervention in different criminal cases pending against them.
While separate benches of the Allahabad high court turned down the applications of dreaded mafia don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and budding politician and Bhartiya Janta Party's Pilibhit nominee Varun Gandhi, the Uttarakhand high court proved to be equally unobliging for another criminal-turned politician -- Amarmani Tripathi .
It was a strange coincidence that each of the three applications was moved simultaneously before these different courts, in search of almost identical relief.
However, what was equally coincidental was that neither of the court benches thought of taking any lenient view in any of the cases.
Mukhtar Ansari was denied the court's permission to file his nomination for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, from where he has been fielded by the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party.
A division bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and Arun Saran of Allahabad high court declared that since Ansari was already in judicial custody, his voting right automatically stood suspended. "When he cannot exercise his right to vote, then how could they be entitled to file his nomination?" asked the bench.
Another division bench comprising of Justice Imtiaz Murtaza and Justice Subhash Chandra Nigam declined to stay the arrest of Varun Gandhi, whose alleged anti-Muslim diatribe at public rallies had put him in the dock and attracted a criminal case.
The Uttrakhand high court too turned out to be equally uncharitable to another criminal-turned politician and former minister Amarmani Tripathi , who has had also sought bail to be able to contest the Lok Sabha election.
Tripathi was facing serious charges including murder of a young Hindi poetess Madhumita Shukla, with whom he allegedly had an affair and she became pregnant.
However, the Samajwadi Party had fielded his uncle Shyam Narain Tiwari as its candidate from Maharajganj Lok Sabha seat, which is regarded as Tripathi's stronghold.
