Jaishankar-Thakore RS wins: Guj HC dismisses Cong petitions

Gujarat High Court on Tuesday dismissed a batch of petitions filed by Congress leaders challenging the election of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat in July last year.

The court of Justice Bela Trivedi dismissed election petitions filed by Congress leaders Gaurav Pandya, Chandrika Chudasama and Paresh Dhanani challenging victories of BJP candidates Jaishankar and Jugalji Thakore in the polls held on July 5 last year.

Jaishankar and Thakore had defeated Congress' Pandya and Chudasama respectively in the bypolls.

The Congress leaders had challenged the election on the ground that the Election Commission's notifications, treating the two vacant seats to be of different categories and requiring bypolls to be held separately, were "illegal and in violation of provisions of the Constitution, Representation of People (RP) Act, 1951 and Conduct of Election Rules, 1961".

The court dismissed the petitions saying the petitioners failed to disclose the cause of action under the provisions of the RP Act relating to the grounds for declaring an election void.

The court also said the petitioners failed to point out any provision of the Constitution or the RP Act requiring the EC to hold a single by-election for filling up all casual vacancies.

"The non-compliance of provisions of the Constitution or provisions of the said (RP) Act constituting the cause of action has to be specifically pleaded, and the interpretation of the petitioner of a particular provision of Constitution or of the Act in a particular manner cannot be termed as the noncompliance of such provision for the purpose of challenging the election," the court said.

The court rejected the two petitions and allowed the applications filed by Jaishankar and Thakore.

The applications of Jaishankar and Thakore contended that the EC broke no rules by holding separate elections for two seats, and that it has been a consistent practice by the EC since 2009 to issue separate notifications for holding bypolls for casual vacancies in the Rajya Sabha.