Supreme Court Issues Notice On PIL Challenging Election Commission's Power To Remove/Reduce Period Of Disqualification Of Legislators

Supreme Court on Friday issued notice in a Public Interest Litigation challenging the constitutional validity of Section 11 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The matter was heard by a bench comprising by CJI UU Lalit and Justice Bela M Trivedi.

The PIL has been filed by an NGO, Lok Prahari. At the outset, the counsel for petitioner submitted that Section 11 had to either be struck down or read down by the court since it suffered from the vice of "excessive delegation".

Section 11 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 provides the Election Commission of India with the power to remove or reduce the period of disqualification of a legislator. The Section reads as follows:

"The Election Commission may, for reasons to be recorded, remove any disqualification under this Chapter 1[(except under section 8A)] or reduce the period of any such disqualification."

Here, CJI Lalit orally remarked–

"What is so bad about Section 11? The parliament itself felt that power could be delegated to the Election Commission of India."

However, the counsel insisted that the delegation of power amounted to excessive delegation.

The bench issued notice in the matter and has now listed it for 5th December 2022.

CASE TITLE: Lok Prahari v. UoI And Anr. WP(C) No. 679/2021 

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