Apex court stays Rajya Sabha polls

Notice to Election Commission on open ballot system

In a move that could affect further legislation and create a roadblock for parliamentary democracy in the future, the Supreme Court, in an interim order, today put on hold the process for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections and by-elections to choose 65 members and issued notice to the Election Commission on a petition challenging the new open balloting system of election to the Upper House.

Among those whose re-election to the Upper House was scheduled on 21 June and will now have to be postponed, are Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Jaswant Singh, Deputy Chairman of the Upper House Najma Heptullah, SS Ahluwalia, Sanghapriya Gautam, Kanshi Ram, Dilip Singh Judeo, Pramod Mahajan, BP Singhal, LM Singhvi, Lalit Suri, DP Yadav, Balkavi Bairagi and others.

On a petition filed by veteran journalist and former Rajya Sabha member Kuldip Nayar challenging the new system brought in by a recent amendment, an apex court Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal and Justice BN Agrawal rejected the plea of the Centre not to pass any interim order on the petition and to await the response of the poll panel.

Nayar told Business Standard that the Rajya Sabha was envisaged as a House of the States. Federalism had been enshrined in the Constitution.

"By removing the domicile requirement, it would become easy for anyone with clout and money to get elected to the Upper House". "How can someone who does not belong to a certain state be a representative of that state?" he asked.

The net effect of the order was the cancellation of the gazette notification. The order will be in force till June 14 when another vacation Bench takes up the petition for hearing.

At least two Cabinet ministers, who are not members of either House of Parliament, were expected to contest the elections to fulfil a constitutional requirement of having to become an MP within six months of induction into the ministry. They are Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Power Minister PM Sayeed.

Nayar had challenged the amendments to the laws providing for open ballot system for the Rajya Sabha elections, an amendment that was brought by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government with support from the Congress to check the rampant cross-voting by MLAs in states.

Appearing for the Centre, senior advocate Kailash Vasudev pleaded with the court not to issue the interim order as it had far reaching consequence of stalling an election process.

He submitted some 75 members, roughly one-third of the 245-member Upper House, were due to retire this year and the issue needed to be decided on a priority basis.

According to senior lawyer and BJP leader Arun Jaitely the issue is slightly different. Representation is about development. Through the Upper House the government had been able to ensure that regions which had not sent members to the Lok Sabha from the ruling party could still be represented by having those members elected from other states.

Jaitely cited the example of 1997, when the Janata Party came to power. Only one Lok Sabha member was elected from all four southern states.

That is why some leaders from the Janata Party in southern states were elected from northern states to ensure the states were adequately represented in the council of ministers.

The last NDA government had no representative in the Lower House from Kerala, which is when O Rajagopal was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh, thereby representing the interests of Kerala in the council of ministers, he said.

Sources said bicameral Houses were not part of the constitutional structure. Nearly half a dozen states have abolished the Upper House. This move by the Supreme Court has profound implications for the functioning of parliamentary democracy.

With the change in the configuration of the Rajya Sabha, a minority in the House will turn into a majority, sources said.