Supreme Court notice to Election Commission in plea by Paresh Dhanani for simultaneous by-polls in two Gujarat Rajya Sabha seats

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in a petition filed by Gujarat Congress leader Paresh Dhanani challenging the ECI decision to hold separate by-polls for Vacant Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat..The Vacation Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Surya Kant sought the ECI’s reply by Monday, June 24 and listed the case for hearing on Tuesday, June 25..Paresh Dhanani has prayed for a direction to the ECI to hold simultaneous polls for filling of Rajya Sabha vacancies in all States, including Gujarat. He has also prayed for quashing the June 15 notice of the ECI..Casual Vacancy vs Statutory Vacancy.The ECI notice of June 15 terms the vacancies created due to the election of Amit Shah and Smriti Irani to the Lok Sabha after the General elections as “casual vacancies”. This, the petition says, is “complete and direct violation of the provisions of Representation of People Act.” Such vacancies fall under the category of Statutory vacancies under Section 69 of the Representation of People Act, contends Dhanani in his petition..Separate elections held for each vacancy would lead to the victory of the candidate from the party commanding simple majority in the State Legislature, the petition contends. It goes on to add that this would upset the scheme of proportional representation as required under the RP Act..Various representations in this regard made by the petitioner before the ECI led to no relief and this “lack of appropriate action” is indicative of “complete absence of justice”, the petitioner has contended..When the matter was heard today, the Court observed that the question whether these vacancies fall under the purview of casual vacancies or statutory vacancies needs consideration and issued notice to the ECI..The Petitioner was represented by Senior Counsel and Congress leader Vivek Tankha and the Election Commission was represented by Senior Counsel Gaurav Pachnanda and Advocates Sidhant Kumar and Udita Singh..Read the Order:.Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.