IMPORTANT POINTS
(1) Where a person has no interest at all, or no sufficient interest to support a legal claim or action he will have no locus standi to sue. Entitlement to sue or locus standi is an integral part of cause of action.
(2) For a person to make claim that he was duly nominated, his nomination paper must comply with statutory requirements which govern filing of nomination papers and not otherwise.

JUDGMENT

S.A. Bobde, C.J.I

This appeal arises out of the order passed by the Allahabad High Court in Election Petition No. 17 of 2019 allowing the respondent's application under Order VI Rule 16 and Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as 'CPC') read with Section 86(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as 'Act') and thereby dismissing the Election Petition filed against him. The said application was filed in the Election Petition questioning the election of the respondent Shri Narendra Modi to the 17th Lok Sabha from 77th Parliamentary Constituency (Varanasi), held in April - May 2019.

2. In the Election petition the appellant had prayed for declaring the election of the respondent to be void on the ground that the appellant's nomination was improperly rejected and further that the nomination of the respondent was wrongly accepted for want of disclosure of certain facts. Further, that the election was vitiated on account of misuse of official power by the Returning Officer and the Election Observer.

3. After due service, the respondent Shri Narendra Modi filed the application for dismissal of the petition contending that the petition does not disclose any cause of action and the appellant had no locus to file the petition in the absence of a certificate. The Allahabad High Court after hearing parties, by a detailed order dismissed the Election Petition on the ground that the appellant had no locus to challenge the election of the respondent from the Varanasi Parliamentary Constituency since the appellant was neither an elector for such constituency nor was he a candidate.

4. The instant appeal accordingly arises from an order passed by the Election Tribunal while considering and disposing the application filed under Order VII Rule 11 CPC seeking rejection of the Election Petition.

5. This matter must therefore necessarily be decided on the basis of the averments in the Election Petition and not on the basis of the reply of any of the respondents. (Vide: Kuldeep Singh Pathania vs. Bikram Singh Jaryal, (2017) 5 SCC 345).

6. For the Varanasi Constituency, the last date of filing the nominations was 29.04.2019. Scrutiny of the nomination forms was to be held on 30.4.2019. We are here mainly concerned with the question of the validity of the appellant's nomination since that has a direct bearing on the question whether he is candidate and has a right to question the election.

7. The appellant was an employee of the Border Security Force and as such held office under the Government of India. The appellant was dismissed from service on 19.4.2017. He filed two nominations, one on 24.4.2019 and another on 29.4.2019. The nominations have been found to be invalid by the returning officer because they were not accompanied by a certificate to the effect that the appellant has not been dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the State as required by Section 9(2)¹[9(2) .For the purpose of sub-section (1), a certificate issued by the Election Commission to the effect that a person having held office under the Government of India or under the Government of a State, has or has not been dismissed for corruption or for disloyalty to the State shall be conclusive proof of that fact;

Provided that no certificate to the effect that a person has been dismissed for corruption or for disloyalty to the State shall be issued unless an opportunity of being heard has been given to the said person.] read with Section 33(3) ²[S. 33(3) .Where the candidate is a person who, having held any office referred to in (section 9) has been dismissed and a period of five years has not elapsed since the dismissal, such person shall not be deemed to be duly nominated as a candidate unless his nomination paper is accompanied by a certificate issued in the prescribed manner by the Election Commission to the effect that he has not been dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the State] of the Act.

8.