Supreme Court on Thursday declined to quash the law allowing political candidates to contest from more than one constituency in Parliamentary as well as Legislative Assembly elections.
The order was passed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud-led three-judge bench.
“It’s a policy matter…an issue of political democracy. It’s for the parliament to take a call,” the apex court said declining the plea by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.
The orders of the top court came on the petition filed by Upadhyay which has sought a declaration that Section 33(7) of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, which allows candidates to contest from two constituencies at a time, as invalid and unconstitutional.
In his plea, Upadhyay has sought directions to the authorities to take appropriate steps to discourage the independent candidates from contesting parliamentary and state Assembly elections as suggested by the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution.
As electoral law stands today, a candidate is permitted to contest an election from two different constituencies in a general election or a group of bye-elections or biennial elections. If a person is elected from more than one seat, then the person can only hold on to one of the seats that he or she won.
In 1996, the Representation of the People Act was amended to restrict a person from contesting polls from, more than two seats. Before the amendment, there was no bar on the number of constituencies from which a candidate could contest.
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