New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a PIL seeking to restrict candidates from contesting elections for the same office simultaneously from more than one constituency, saying the issues pertain to the legislative domain. A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala declined to quash a law that allows candidates to contest from more than one constituency in an election.
The apex court said this is an issue of political democracy and it's for the Parliament to decide not for the court. It said permitting a candidate for contesting for more than one seat is a matter of legislative policy since ultimately its Parliament's will on whether the political democracy is furthered by granting such choice. The bench further said that candidates may contest from different seats due to a variety of reasons and whether this would further the course of democracy is up to the Parliament.
The order of the apex court came on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking to declare as invalid and ultra-virus section 33(7) of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, which allows a person to contest a general election or a group of bye-elections or biennial elections from two constituencies. (with ANI inputs)
