SC to hear Cong plea against NOTA option

FOUR CANDIDATES ARE IN THE FRAY FOR THREE RAJYA SABHA SEATS TO WHICH THE ELECTION WILL TAKE PLACE ON AUGUST 8

The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to hear Gujarat Congress’s petition challenging the Election Commission’s (EC) decision to use the None of the Above (NOTA) option in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in the state.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the petition and asked a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra to hear the matter urgently. The court accepted the submission and listed it for Thursday. Sibal said there was no statutory provision with regard to NOTA in the Constitution.

The request was made a day after the Congress approached the EC against the use of NOTA, claiming it violated the Constitution and electoral laws. In response, the commission told party representatives that the direction was not new as it was introduced in 2014.

Directions to use NOTA in the RS elections were enforced in January 2014, a year after they made it mandatory to include it in electronic voting machines.

The petitioner — Shailesh Manubhai Parmar, chief whip of the party in the Gujarat legislative assembly, claimed before the SC this was no attempt to stall the election process. He said his petition is to uphold the sanctity of elections to the Council of States. The poll panel’s decision would defeat the mechanism of indirect elections, that is, elections by a system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. The mechanism of elections to the Lok Sabha vis-àvis Rajya Sabha is different, the petitioner stated.

Four candidates are in the fray for three Rajya Sabha seats to which the election will take place on August 8. Apart from BJP president Amit Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani, the ruling party has decided to field Balwantsinh Rajput against Congress candidate, Ahmed Patel.