Plea Moved In Madhya Pradesh HC Seeking Postponement Of Rajya Sabha Elections [Read Petition]

The petition filed by Dr. Aman Sharma, a resident of Indore, through Advocate Abhinav Dhanodkar is listed for hearing on June 16.

The Election Commission had announced that the Poll for three vacancies of the state of MP in the Rajya Sabha will be held on June 19, 2020.

The Petitioner has sought deferment of this notification, while stating that more than 1/10^th of the house will not be represented in the election, if the 24 seats lying vacant in the State Legislative Assembly are not filled up first.

He has asserted that as per Section 152 of the Representation of People Act, members of the Legislative Assembly will be electors i.e. representing 230 constituencies. However in this case, 24 constituents will be deprived of their rights or representation and the voting by the members will make sufficient difference in the result of the poll.

"The vacancies are more than 1/10 of the total number of members. The sufficient quota is the basis for further counting and declaration of result Thus 24 members of the Assembly will be deprived of the right to vote and the result on account of vacancies will be affected. Thus the elections will not be fair," the plea states.

It is further pointed out that the counting of votes when more than one seat is to be filled is governed by Rule 76 to 81 under the Conduct of Election Rules 1961. As per this procedure, each valid ballot paper is of the value 100 and valid ballot paper is one where first preference is given

In the present case it is asserted,

"the number of electors is 230 and therefore the total value will be 23000 and it is divided by 8 and one is added then the sufficient quota will be 2886.

There are 24 vacancies therefore the number of electors will be reduced to 207x100 total will come to 20700 and if it is divided by 8 and one is added then it comes to 2813, therefore the entire basis for counting will be erroneous."

The Petitioner has ventilated that these 24 vacancies had arisen about 4 months ago and elections to these vacancies should have been held by now. It is further asserted that under section 151-A of the RP Act, elections should be held within 6 months from the date of occurrence of the vacancies.

In this backdrop he has prayed that election to all three vacant seats of Rajya Sabha be deferred and the Election Commission be directed to first fill the 24 vacant seats in Legislative Assembly.

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