Plea in Supreme Court seeks re-polling when NOTA gets maximum votes, cites unopposed BJP win in Surat

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a petition seeking re-polling in areas where maximum people choose 'None Of The Above' (NOTA) option [Shiv Khera v Union of India].A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud as well as Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice after Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan mentioned that in Surat Lok Sabha constituency, there was only one candidate who was elected unopposed.."We will issue notice. This is about the electoral process also. Let us see what Election commission has to say on this," the CJI said. .Mukesh Dalal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was declared the winner of the election in the Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 well ahead of the scheduled election on May 7. This happened following the withdrawal of seven candidates and the rejection of the affidavit of the Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani..The plea before the Supreme Court by one Shiv Khera has drawn from the 170th report of the Law Commission of India on 'Reform of the Electoral Laws' dated May 29, 1999. In this report, the Law Commission had recommended an alternative method of election whereby no candidate should be declared elected unless they obtain at least 50% of the votes cast. Additionally, the Commission proposed the introduction of a 'negative vote' option for voters who were not inclined to choose any of the candidates.According to the recommendation, for the purpose of calculating the 50% threshold, even negative votes would be counted as 'votes cast'.In the event no candidate receives 50% or more of the votes cast in the run-off, there should a fresh election from that constituency, it suggested..Further, the plea highlighted that in the urban local body elections of several States and Union territories, the NOTA option is treated as a 'Fictional Electoral Candidate' and fresh elections are conducted in case most voters opt for NOTA..Since the petitioner's representation to the ECI seeking implementation of NOTA as a fictional candidate at the National level went unanswered, he moved the Supreme Court. .The plea was filed by Advocate-on-Record (AoR) Shweta Mazumdar and was drafted by advocates Jhanvi Dubey and Zeeshan Diwan.