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The Supreme Court on Friday (February 6) rejected the petition of Prashant Kishor-led Jan Suraj Party, which had sought to cancel the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections and hold fresh elections. The party had alleged that voters were influenced by transferring cash to women under a welfare scheme of the state government just before the elections.

The case was heard by a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. The court first questioned the legality of filing the petition by Jan Suraj Party. The court pointed to the fact that Jan Suraj had contested 242 out of 243 assembly seats in Bihar, but was not successful in winning even a single seat.

During the hearing, the Supreme Court said in clear words that judicial forums cannot be used to overturn the public mandate. The court remarked that if there were objections to any government scheme, they should have been challenged at the time, rather than seeking to declare the entire election invalid after the election results were declared.

The bench refused to go into the merits of the petition, saying that the matter pertains to only one state, hence it should be taken up in the concerned High Court. However, the court also added that in some cases the issue of ‘freebies’ i.e. concessions and benefits given before the elections may be serious and such cases may be considered by the court in future.

Jan Suraj Party had alleged in its petition that the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government influenced the election environment by giving cash assistance to women under the Chief Minister Mahila Rozgar Yojana while the Model Code of Conduct was in force. Under the scheme, one woman from each family was given Rs 10,000 for self-employment, with the promise of additional assistance of up to Rs 2 lakh after assessment.

According to the petition, benefits of the scheme were dependent on being linked to the state’s women self-help group network Jeevika, and new registrations were also allowed during the election period. Jan Suraj claimed that before the implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, about 1 crore women were associated with livelihood, while later the number of women getting benefits increased to about 1.56 crore. The party argued that this affected the principle of equal opportunity in elections.

On these grounds, Jan Suraj had demanded to declare the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections illegal and hold re-elections. However, the Supreme Court refused to accept this demand and gave liberty to the petitioner to approach the concerned High Court.

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