Plea Filed In SC To Invalidate Election If NOTA Gets Most Votes

In an unprecedented move, a petition has been filed in the Supreme court seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (EC) to use its plenary power, which is conferred under Article 324 of the Constitution, to invalidate the election results and hold a fresh election if NOTA gets most votes in a particular constituency.

The plea was filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay earlier this week. Apart from the former, he also sought directions to restrict already participated candidates from taking part in the fresh election.

In his petition, the BJP leader said that the apex court should direct and declare that if NOTA gets maximum votes, then election to that constituency shall be nullified and fresh elections shall be held within six months.

He additionally sought that the contesting candidates, who are being rejected, shall not be allowed to participate in the fresh polls. The plea said that the right to reject will check corruption, criminalisation, casteism, communalism, linguism and regionalism.

 "If these (directions) would be implemented, then the political parties would be forced to give tickets to honest and patriotic candidates. If candidates on whom the political parties spend crores of rupees are rejected, they would abstain from doing so," the plea said.

"The right to reject contesting candidates would mean true democracy, as the people would be able to elect their representatives in true sense. It will make contesting candidates accountable in their process," it added.