Tenure curtailment of Bihar MLCs; SC seeks suggestions from EC

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre and the Election Commission to suggest solutions to a legal impasse arising out of a Patna High Court verdict fixing the tenures of two, four and six years to one-third members each of a total of 24 Bihar Legislative Council members to be elected on July 7.
"The matter requires second legal look. Either the election should go on or we should stay the election. Give us a possible solution...," a bench, comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and justices Arun Mishra and Amitava Roy, said.
The bench, hearing the appeal of Bihar Legislative Council against the Patna High Court verdict, said it was willing to issue a notice on the petition "but the question is what sort of interim order should be passed".

The apex court wanted to know how the decision would be taken to retire one-third of the members every two years.
Senior advocates Ashok Desai and L Nageshwar Rao, who were appearing in the matter, said one of the options could be draw of lots.
However, this suggestion did not appeal to the bench which said, "candidates losing the lot will be coming here citing one or the other Articles in the Constitution".

Earlier, one-third members of the 24 member Bihar Legislative Council, a permanent house like Rajya Sabha, used to retire after two years.
"However, from 1978 to 2002, elections to local bodies were not conducted in State of Bihar and hence, all 24 seats remained vacant. Ultimately, when the local bodies' elections took place in 2003, the members of the Legislative Council were also duly elected and appointed for a term of 6 years from July 17, 2003 as there was no law enacted by Parliament curtailing their term.

"It is pertinent to note that the term of the candidates elected in 2009 is due to expire on July 7, 2015," the plea said.
The High Court, in its order passed on a PIL, said that in order to ensure statutory compliance, the election to the legislative body be conducted in such a way that one-third of such members each will have two, four and six years' tenures respectively.