Sc notice to Centre, poll panel & Delhi over 3 RS seats

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Centre, the Election Commission and the Delhi government on BJP MLA Ravinder Nath Bansal's plea to stay the January 27 Rajya Sabha biennial elections for 3 seats from Delhi on the the ground that the Constitutional process was being violated.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Centre, Election Commission (EC) and Delhi government on a petition seeking stay on the Rajya Sabha's biennial elections for 3 seats from Delhi.

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Three seats of Rajya Sabha from Delhi will be vacated on January 27 with the term of senior Congress leaders Janardan Dwivedi , Karan Singh and Parvez Hashmi ending on the day.

Petitioner, BJP MLA Ravinder Nath Bansal, has sought quashing of December 19, 2011 EC notification to conduct the elections. According to Bansal, the notification violates the constitutional process.

A bench headed by justice Altamas Kabir, however, refused to immediately pass an order to quash the notification.

Bansal's counsel, senior advocate Fali Nariman claimed the panel's decision was "ultra vires" of the Constitution as it had decided "to conduct three separate biennial elections to fill one seat each" in violation of Articles 80(4) and 80(5) of the Constitution.

According to the petitioner, though the seats are getting vacated on January 27, EC has categorised them into three separate categories and decided to hold three separate elections on the same day, the petitioner claimed. He has sought court direction to the poll panel to fill up the three seats in a "single common election" through the proportional representation and transferable vote system.