Veteran journo wants RS poll notification delayed

Veteran journalist and former Rajya Sabha member Kuldip Nayar on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking to restrain the Election Commission from issuing any notification for conducting polls for 60 seats of the Upper House, falling vacant between February and June 2006.

Nayar, whose public interest litigation challenging an amendment to Section 3 of the Representation of People's Act, 1951, doing away with the domicile requirement for Rajya Sabha candidates, is pending before a Constitution bench, urged the court to takeup the matter at an early date in view of the high number of vacant seats likely to be filled in the near future.

Appearing for Nayar, senior counsel and former Rajya Sabha member Fali S Nariman submitted that apart from domicile, there was also the issue of secret ballot, which was done away with by the same amendment to the RPA during the National Democratic Alliance regime.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice C K Thakker said the issue would be taken up in the last week of February. Two judges - Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice D M Dharmadhikar - of the five-judge Constitution bench have already retired, and the bench will have to be reconstitued before the hearing on Nayar's PIL filed in April 2004 resumes.

The three other judges on the bench were Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice Arun Kumar and Justice B N Srikrishna.

The court had, in its order dated June 9, 2004, said that all the vacancies filled after the filing of the petition shall be subject to the outcome of the petition. The petitioner pointed out that of the total 238 seats of the Rajya Sabha, 139 seats, including the 60 likely to be filled between February and June 2006, would be subject to the outcome of the petition.

Prominent among the 60 retiring members of the Rajya Sabha are Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, Law and Justice Minister H R Bharadwaj, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Minister of State for Coal and Mines Dasari Narayan Rao, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, Communist Patrty of India-Marxist leader Nilotpal Basu and former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani.

Earlier, the hearing of the PIL could not be completed as the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General had expressed difficulties in completing their arguments within the stipulated time, and thereafter the Constitution Bench had released the matter and requested the Chief Justice of India to list it as early as possible for final hearing.