Rajasthan HC Dismisses PIL Seeking To Restrain Political Parties, Electoral Candidates From Visiting Religious Places During Election Campaigns

The Rajasthan High Court has dismissed a public interest litigation which sought directions from the court to restrain candidates from visiting religious places during election campaigns.

The petitioner prayed for issuance of directions to all the political parties and the candidates contesting elections to not use caste or religion for the purposes of election and not to visit religious places such as Temples, Mosques, Church, Ashram, Maths and other places of worship during the election campaign, beginning from the period of notification of an election.

State of Rajasthan, the Election Commission of India and the Chief Election Officer of the Election Commission of Rajasthan were respondents to the petition.

The division bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sandeep Mehta noted that a similar writ petition was filed by the petitioner in 2018. The court had then observed that seeking votes in the name of religion, caste, community or language was already statutorily prohibited and, therefore, no general directions in this regard are required. The court had also given liberty to the petitioner to approach the Election Commission for redressal of his grievances.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Mithal in the order passed on October 18 observed that the fresh petition was "nothing but a virtual repetition" of that plea filed in 2018 and that the reliefs sought then are the same.

"It is settled law that successive writ petitions for the same cause of action are not maintainable and that filing of second writ petition for the same purpose is an abuse of the process of law," said the court.

However, the court directed the Chief Election Commissioner to objectively consider and pass appropriate order on petitioner's representation, if any.

Case Title: Sant Vaidehi Balabh Dev Acharyaji Maharaj v. State of Rajasthan and Others