Delhi HC questions PIL to stop LS poll losers from getting into RS

HC said courts are not supposed to make or amend laws, but can only interpret them

The Delhi High Court on Monday questioned the maintainability of a PIL seeking to restrain candidates defeated in Lok Sabha election from contesting the Rajya Sabha polls, saying courts do not make or amend the law.

A bench of justices G S Sistani and Vinod Goel also raised a question on the locus of the petitioner, who said that the candidates defeated in Lok Sabha should not be nominated to the Upper House.

"The courts are not supposed to make a law or make any amendments in the existing law. This has to be done by the government. It is the responsibility of the legislature. Courts can only interpret whether it has been done in accordance with the basic structure of the Constitution or not," the bench said.

It also observed that the petition was not maintainable as the petitioner has no locus.

To this, the petitioner said being a common man, he had the locus to file the petition raising this "serious" issue.

This prompted the bench to ask the petitioner, Satya Narayan Prasad, how was he aggrieved. "Which law has been violated as per you (petitioner)," the bench asked and directed the petitioner to address it on the maintainability of his writ petition on the next date of hearing on March 2.

The petitioner, who claims to be a social activist, has moved the court saying that India being a democratic country and the people being supreme in electing its leaders, it is "a misfortune that politicians who are defeated in the general elections are nominated to the Upper House".

Seeking a direction to the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Election Commission (EC), the petitioner said "any candidate who contested Lok Sabha election and has been defeated, he be declared disqualified for being a Member of Parliament (MP).

"Such candidates cannot be nominated or allowed to contest in Rajya Sabha election," the plea said, adding that this is "against the fundamental principle of democracy, wherein mandate/votes on Indian citizen is supreme".

Pleading for special rules to bar leaders who have lost Lok Sabha polls from contesting in Rajya Sabha election, the petitioner said action should be taken against the authorities concerned who have"wrongly nominated such disqualified candidates for membership in Parliament".

While candidates are elected to Lok Sabha directly by the people, members of Rajya Sabha are elected by the elected members of state assemblies in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.