RS polls: Constitution bench to hear interim stay plea

The bench, presided by the Chief Justice of India Y.K. Sabharwal and comprising Justices K.G. Balakrishnan, S.H. Kapadia, C.K. Thakker and P.K. Balasubramanyan, will hear tomorrow arguments on the interim stay to stop the Election Commission from announcing poll schedule.

Senior counsel and nominated member of the Rajya Sabha in the “eminent persons” category Fali Nariman for Jit and former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Justice Rajindar Sachar for Nayar contend that spirit of the constitutional provision that a person belonging to the state from which he is elected would better serve interests of that state has been defeated by an amendment to the Representation of the Peoples Act, doing away with the “domicile” requisite as a qualification of a candidate.

Majority of Congress and BJP members belong to this category. And, the NDA government amended the act removing the “domicile” condition. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tops the list having been elected from Assam to the Upper House.

The counsel argued that a law or an amendment to a law cannot be in variance to a Constitutional provison mandating that a person should be “ordinarily resident of” and “domiciled” in the state from where he is contesting and being elected to the Rajya Sabha.

During Indira Gandhi’s tenure, the “domicile requisite” for Lok Sabha was done away with on the ground that in election to the lower house, people “directly” elected their representatives. This amendment was upheld by the Supreme Court.