Plea in SC for restraining candidates for contesting polls from more than one seat

The Supreme Court on Wednesday posted after two weeks the hearing a plea seeking its direction to put a restraint on candidates from contesting on more than one seat.

The direction was given by a three-judge bench headed by Justice SA Bobde and also comprising Justices M Shantanagoudar and S Abdul Nazeer.

Earlier, the government had told the apex court that a candidate should be allowed to contest from two seats since this legal provision provides for wider choice to the polity as well as candidates.

Under the existing legal framework, a candidate is allowed to contest from up to a maximum of two constituencies in Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

Lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay in his plea has sought doing away with the provision on the ground that it leads to wastage of public money in getting an election conducted once again for the constituency which is left vacant by the winning candidate.