New Delhi, Sep 13 : The Supreme Court has observed that the right to participate in an election is not an essential right or a common law rights.The court the court imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on a litigant who wanted to run in the Rajya Sabha polls without a proposer to put his name forward.A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia stated: “An individual cannot claim that he is entitled to contest an election, and the stipulation in question violates his fundamental right, such as to submit his nomination without a proposal as required by the Act.”
The court said the petitioner Vishwanath Pratap Singh had filed an writ petition in the Delhi High Court raising a concern that an invitation to elections to Rajya Sabha was issued on May 12, to fill seats of members who will retire from June 21 until August 1st.The deadline for to submit of the nomination was May 31.
“The position of the petitioner is that he completed the nomination form, but was not permitted to file his candidature without an appropriate proposer who proposed his name.The petitioner filed his application without a proposer and was rejected and, consequently, he claims that his fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression as well as his right to personal liberty was violated.”
In citing a decision of Rajbala vs.State of Haryana (2016) The bench noted that this court ruled that the right to run for an office in the other of these two bodies is subject to constitutional restrictions.The right to contest for a seat can be further restricted through a law passed by the legislature.
So the petitioner did not have the right to contest elections for the Rajya Sabha in terms of the law passed by Parliament, it stated and added that the Representation of People Act of 1950, which is in conjunction with the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, has considered the name of candidates to be suggested when filling out the form for nomination.
“We believe that the petition for writ submitted to the High Court was entirely misconceived and the same is true of the current special leave petition.The right to challenge an election is not an inherent right nor a common legal right.It’s a privilege granted by statute.” the court stated.
In the decision issued on September 9th, the highest court stated “We dismiss the current special leave petition with cost of $1,000,000.00.The amount is to is to be payable to the Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee within four weeks.In the process of submitting application(s) (if any) is to be disposed of.”
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