The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to respond on an allegation that he had concealed two alleged criminal cases pending against him when he filed his affidavit for the 2014 Assembly elections in the state.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K.M. Joseph issued notice to the BJP leader on an appeal filed by Mumbai-based advocate Satish Ukey.

In Mumbai, the chief minister’s office issued a statement following the notice. “The chief minister had filed all details in the affidavit. This matter was already dismissed by the Bombay High Court. The chief minister will send a response to the Supreme Court’s notice,” it said. The affidavit could not be independently verified as the link on the Election Commission’s website did not open.

Ukey, who has challenged a Bombay High Court order that had earlier dismissed his appeal, has alleged that Fadnavis faced two criminal cases, one pertaining to forgery and the other relating to a criminal defamation suit.

Under Section 125A of the Representation of People Act, 1951, it is mandatory for a candidate to disclose whether any criminal charges have been framed against him/her by any court for offences that could lead to a jail term of two years or more.

The high court had dismissed Ukey’s plea on the ground that under election rules a candidate has to disclose any pending criminal cases only if charges have been framed by a competent court.

In Fadnavis’s case, the high court had held that he had merely been summoned by a Nagpur court in both these cases and no charges had been framed against him.