By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Thursday refused to grant an urgent hearing to a lawsuit challenging the Election Commission’s decision to hold separately – through three separate ballot papers – the Aug 10 by-elections for three Rajya Sabha vacancies from Maharashtra.
The three vacancies have come up as Rajya Sabha members Supriya Sule, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Praful Patel have been elected to the Lok Sabha in May.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice B.S. Chauhan said the matter has already been listed for hearing Aug 3.
“There is no urgency involved in the matter,” said the bench, adding that even otherwise the election is to be held Aug 10.
The lawsuit was filed by Suresh Rahul Nawrekar, a probable Shiv Sena candidate who contended that the decision to hold the three elections separately through separate ballot papers negate the spirit of the article 84 of the constitution, which lays down the principle of proportional representation through single transferable votes for the Rajya Sabha elections.
Appearing for Nawrekar, senior counsel M.N. Krishnamani argued that this principle was actually laid down to ensure that a state is represented in the upper house in proportion to its different section of the population.
And, accordingly, even the parties with less members in the state legislatures are able to elect their candidates for the Rajya Sabha, he said.
But that is possible, said Krishnamani, only when the elections for all the casual vacancies, numbering more than one, are held together through a single ballot paper, giving each member of the state legislature an opportunity to cast “his single vote” to chose from among the several candidates in the fray.
This methodology of holding elections for multiple vacancies in the upper house together would ensure that merely the largest party in the state legislature is not able to corner all the vacant seats of the house, said Krishnamani.
He added that if the election for several Rajya Sabha seats are held together, even smaller parties stand a chance to get a few seats in the upper house.
But in case the elections are held separately with as many ballot papers as there are casual vacancies, each member of the legislature gets as many chances to vote and this can favour the largest party.
Interestingly, the lawsuit came up for its first formal hearing on the day the Election Commission notified the by-election schedule.
Seeking directions to the poll panel to hold the by-elections for the three vacancies together through a single ballot paper, senior counsel Krishnamani had rushed to the apex court Tuesday without filing his lawsuit properly.
He had pleaded to the court that the poll panel was likely to issue its notification on July 23 for the election to fill the three casual vacancies in the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra.
Accordingly, he wanted the court to hear his lawsuit on July 22, saying his plea would become futile after the Election Commission issues notification for holding the election as the constitution bars courts from interfering into any election process after the notification.
But the court had asked him to approach it only after filing his lawsuit.