SC rejects PIL to bar candidates from contesting polls from more than one constituency

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition seeking to limit candidates from more than one constituency from running for the same post at the same time, stating the concerns are in the legislative domain.

A panel comprised of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala, declined to overturn a statute that enables candidates to run in several constituencies in an election. The Supreme Judiciary stated that this is a matter of parliamentary democracy and that the decision should be made by Parliament, not the court.

It stated that allowing a candidate to run for more than one seat is an issue of legislative policy because it is ultimately up to Parliament to decide if such choice advances democratic democracy.

The bench went on to say that candidates may run for different seats for a variety of reasons, and whether or not this advances democracy is up to Parliament.

The Supreme Court ruled that the provision could not be declared unconstitutional since the legislative mandate is a question of Parliamentary sovereignty.

The Supreme Court also stated that its decision would not bar Parliament from altering the law.
The order came in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking to declare section 33(7) of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, which allows a person to contest a general election, a group of bye-elections, or biennial elections from the same constituencies.

It also sought direction to the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take appropriate steps to discourage independent candidates from contesting Parliament and state assembly elections.

“When a candidate contests from two seats, it is imperative that he has to vacate one of the two seats if he wins both. This, apart from the consequent unavoidable financial burden on the public exchequer, government manpower and other resources for holding bye-election against the resultant vacancy, is also an injustice to the voters of the constituency which the candidate is quitting from,” the plea has said.

In July 2004, the Chief Election Commissioner had urged the then Prime Minister for amendment of Section 33(7) of the RP Act to provide that a person cannot contest from more than one constituency for the same office simultaneously, the petition stated.

It further added that the poll panel had alternatively suggested that if existing provisions are retained, then the candidate contesting from two seats should bear the cost of the bye-election to the seat that the contestant decides to vacate in the event of his/her winning both seats.
The Centre has not taken appropriate steps in this regard till date, it added.