The Supreme Court Tuesday issued notice to the central government and the Election Commission on a plea seeking direction that the biennial election for the three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi should be held in one go and not in three separate stages Jan 19.
The apex court bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice J. Chelameswar issued notice on the petition by Delhi BJP legislator Ravinder Nath Bansal and sought the government’s reply by Jan 16.
The election to the three seats, in which the legislators would vote, are scheduled to be held in the assembly Jan 19.
The petition objected to the Election Commission notification providing for the holding of separate elections for the three seats of Rajya Sabha, saying it violated the constitutional provisions.
The petitioner said that the announcement of elections to Rajya Sabha from Delhi through a Dec 19, 2011, press release and subsequent notification was against the constitutional provisions.
The Election Commission and the Delhi government were also asked to respond on the plea by Jan 16.
The petition was mentioned by senior counsel Fali Nariman.
The senior counsel told the court that a press note was issued a day after the court’s winter break last year and the petition challenging the Dec 19, 2011 press note was filed Jan 2, 2012.
The Election Commission is holding separate elections to the three seats in pursuance to the Delhi High Court verdict of Jan 14, 1994.
The court had said: “We are of the view that once the seats have been divided into the three categories from the inception, the respondents (the Election Commission) were right in holding separate elections for each category. Now these three seats fall in three separate categories, so elections to these three seats have to be also separate”.
The Congress has re-nominated all the three sitting members of Rajya Sabha – Karan Singh, Janardan Dwivedi and Parvez Hashmi – for the Jan 19 election.
