EC backs plea in SC on one candidate, one seat
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has supported a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on candidates contesting elections for two Lok Sabha or state assembly seats simultaneously.
In an affidavit filed in the top court, the ECI unequivocally stated that the “Commission is of the view that the law should be amended to provide that a person cannot contest from more than one constituency at a time.”
“In case the legislature is of the view that the present law should be retained, then there should be an express provision requiring a person who contests and wins elections from two seats resulting in a bye election from one of the two constituencies to deposit in the government account an appropriate amount of money being the expenditure for holding the bye elections.”
The poll watchdog had in 2004 pegged this amount to be paid by candidates at ~5 lakh for an assembly election and ~10 lakh for election to the Lok Sabha.
This petition in the Supreme Court has been filed by Delhi
NEWDELHI:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who has sought to declare as invalid section 33(7) of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, which allows a person to contest two seats at the same time.
In 2004,the ECI had sent a set of 22 proposals on electoral reforms to the central government. The government then referred the proposals to a parliamentary standing committee.
ECI, in its affidavit, also pointed out that the parliamentary panel which looked into the suggestion of the commission for an amendment shot it down and was in favour of allowing candidates to contest two constituencies.
EC also cited the 255th report of the Law Commission of India, which favoured an amendment to section 33(7) to permit a candidate to contest only seat on grounds that .allowing them to stand for election to seats caused unnecessary expenditure and effort as well as election fatigue and harassment to voters.
Attorney general of India KK Venugopal has agreed to assist the Supreme Court on the petition.