One of the petitions against Mr. Jaishankar was filed by Congress leader Gaurav Pandya.
New Delhi:
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued opinions on a series of petitions challenging the election of Foreign Minister S Jaishankar to Rajya Sabha of Gujarat.
The petitions also raised the issue of the power of the Election Commission to issue separate notifications for the holding of by-ballots for the occasional and regular vacation in Rajya Sabha.
One of the petitions against Mr. Jaishankar was filed by Congress leader Gaurav Pandya.
A bench composed of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian took note of the submissions of Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal that a date be set for the hearing of these cases.
“We will give you a short date and it will be listed on a non-miscellaneous day,” the bench said in a hearing conducted by video conference.
Senior Counsel Harish Salve, who represented Mr. Jaishankar, accepted the notification.
Earlier, the high court said it wished to rule on the question of the power of the Election Commission to issue separate notifications for the holding of by-ballots for regular and occasional elections to fill vacancies in Rajya Sabha.
The pleas concerned the 2019 Rajya Sabha indirect ballot in two Gujarat seats and both seats were won by BJP candidates.
Previously, the Supreme Court had said that there was no authoritative Supreme Court judgment on whether the election to more than one vacant seat should be held separately or jointly.
On February 4, the High Court of Gujarat rejected the plea of Congress leader Gaurav Pandya against the election of Mr. Jaishankar to Rajya Sabha.
He also rejected two other petitions tabled by Congress leaders Chandrikaben Chudasama and Pareshkumar Dhanani against the election of BJP candidate Jugalji Thakore.
Chandrikaben Chudasama and Pareshkumar Dhanani also moved the high court against a High Court order dismissing their election petitions against Mr Thakore.
Both Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Thakore were elected to Rajya Sabha on July 5 last year in by-ballots held on seats vacated by Union ministers Amit Shah and Smriti Irani.
MM. Jaishankar and Thakore had beaten candidates for Congress – MM. Pandya and Chudasama – respectively in the bypasses.
The leaders of Congress had seized the High Court, challenging the election on the grounds that the notifications of the Election Commission, treating the two vacant seats as belonging to different categories and requiring that the ballots be held separately, were “ illegal and in effect. violation of the provisions of the Constitution, the Law on the Representation of the People (PR), 1951 and the Rules of Conduct of Elections, 1961 ”.
The High Court had dismissed the petitions, saying the petitioners had not disclosed the cause of action under the RP Act’s provisions on grounds for nullifying an election.
He also said the petitioners did not report any provision in the Constitution or PR law requiring the Election Commission to hold a single by-election to fill all casual vacancies.
Mr Jaishankar and Mr Thakore had argued in the High Court that the EC had not broken any rules by holding separate elections for two seats and that since 2009 the voting committee had a practice of issuing separate notifications for the holding partial ballots for the Rajya Sabha.
