NEW DELHI: Election Commission and the Centre Thursday told Supreme Court that SC's 2013 mandate to provide the option of NOTA to voters had turned out to be a "failed idea" and that it was preposterous for a PIL to insist on conducting polls even in the rare instance of there being only a single candidate in the fray to know whether she/he secures more votes than NOTA.
Appearing for EC, advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told SC, "NOTA... never impacted any election as a minuscule of voters exercised this option. Every winning candidate got far higher votes than NOTA."
Attorney general R Venkataramani, with additional solicitor general S D Sanjay, said govt concurred with EC.
The bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said, "Can the Union govt and EC deliberate on prescribing a minimum vote percentage benchmark for winning candidates?"
'Uncontested polls now rare': EC urges SC to junk NGO plea
Govt may think of constituting an expert body comprising parliamentarians and domain experts to discuss this issue. Since our Constitution provides for a democracy by majority, is it not desirable that the winning candi-date secures a threshold vote percentage, which would be fixed by Parliament," the bench said.
Venkataramani said this issue was deliberated upon at length by EC which gave a report on 'one nation one poll'. The recommendations were debated by parliamentarians and there were divergent views, he said.
Justice Kant said this may be a hypothetical issue - a single candidate in the fray may secure less votes than Nota in case an election was held instead of declaring that candidate elected unopposed.
In its affidavit, EC said a candidate getting elected unopposed from a Lok Sabha constituency was very rare. Since 1991, there was only a single such instance of a candidate getting elected to Lok Sabha unopposed, Dwivedi said. "Since 1971 till today, that is in the last 54 years, there have been six uncontested elections in total. In the 20 general elections since 1951, there have been only nine uncontested elections," he added.
Responding to the PIL by NGO 'Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy' seeking conduct of election even when there was only a single candidate in the fray, EC said, "With the evolution of democracy, a greater number of political parties are contesting elections and, hence, the number of candidates also increases automatically, and voters have become more aware and eager to exercise their right to vote.
"The chance of the election being uncontested has become a rarity which is proven from statistical data and, hence, in such a scenario, SC ought not to entertain the present petition."
Nota option is there only when there is an election, EC said, adding, "Hence, treating Nota as a mandatorily contesting candidate in all direct uncontested elections does not find place in the statute and the same would require legislative amendments in the provisions of Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961."
Appearing for EC, advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told SC, "NOTA... never impacted any election as a minuscule of voters exercised this option. Every winning candidate got far higher votes than NOTA."
Attorney general R Venkataramani, with additional solicitor general S D Sanjay, said govt concurred with EC.
The bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said, "Can the Union govt and EC deliberate on prescribing a minimum vote percentage benchmark for winning candidates?"
'Uncontested polls now rare': EC urges SC to junk NGO plea
Govt may think of constituting an expert body comprising parliamentarians and domain experts to discuss this issue. Since our Constitution provides for a democracy by majority, is it not desirable that the winning candi-date secures a threshold vote percentage, which would be fixed by Parliament," the bench said.
Venkataramani said this issue was deliberated upon at length by EC which gave a report on 'one nation one poll'. The recommendations were debated by parliamentarians and there were divergent views, he said.
Justice Kant said this may be a hypothetical issue - a single candidate in the fray may secure less votes than Nota in case an election was held instead of declaring that candidate elected unopposed.
In its affidavit, EC said a candidate getting elected unopposed from a Lok Sabha constituency was very rare. Since 1991, there was only a single such instance of a candidate getting elected to Lok Sabha unopposed, Dwivedi said. "Since 1971 till today, that is in the last 54 years, there have been six uncontested elections in total. In the 20 general elections since 1951, there have been only nine uncontested elections," he added.
Responding to the PIL by NGO 'Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy' seeking conduct of election even when there was only a single candidate in the fray, EC said, "With the evolution of democracy, a greater number of political parties are contesting elections and, hence, the number of candidates also increases automatically, and voters have become more aware and eager to exercise their right to vote.
"The chance of the election being uncontested has become a rarity which is proven from statistical data and, hence, in such a scenario, SC ought not to entertain the present petition."
Nota option is there only when there is an election, EC said, adding, "Hence, treating Nota as a mandatorily contesting candidate in all direct uncontested elections does not find place in the statute and the same would require legislative amendments in the provisions of Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961."
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