The Pune Lok Sabha seat has been vacant since March 29, 2023, after the death of BJP MP Girish Bapat.
In its latest Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed before the Supreme Court in the ongoing litigation over the pending bypoll, the EC has pointed to the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, stating that the status of “one vacancy” was not clear due to “pending litigation” and conducting elections for a few parliamentary constituencies while leaving one would have caused “logistical and optical issues.”
The EC has challenged the December 12, 2023 order of the Bombay High Court directing it to immediately hold bypolls to the vacant parliamentary seat in Pune. However, the SC on Monday stayed the HC order.
In its petition, the poll panel has termed the HC order as an act “in haste,” without keeping the EC reply on record and with potential to cause a “constitutional crisis” as it would lead to similar bypolls in three other vacant seats. Such an elected candidate would not only have a very short tenure as an MP but also fail to attend even a single parliamentary session as India heads to the Lok Sabha elections in a few months, the EC pointed out.
It has also raised a question over varying orders by the Bombay HC on counting of the remaining tenure of a legislator in case of a bypoll, from the day the vacancy arises or the day the person can be declared elected.Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, mandates the poll panel to fill the casual vacancies in the Houses of Parliament and state legislatures through by-elections within six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy.WAYANAD SPANNER
While Pune, Ambala and Chandrapur parliamentary seats fell vacant on March 29, May 18 and May 30 of 2023, respectively, following the demise of the members of parliament; Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala went vacant due to the disqualification of BSP’s Afzal Ansari on May 1 and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on March 24, 2023, respectively.
Holding polls in Pune seat would require the EC to do the same in Wayanad as well but the poll panel decided to tread cautiously on it, given major political implications as Rahul Gandhi had challenged his disqualification in court and also the recent nudges from the apex court on allowing “reasonable time” to disqualified candidates before bypoll announcement.
Even though Gandhi’s disqualification was finally overturned by the SC, the decision came in August 2023. A waiting EC, therefore, ended up missing the window for announcing bypolls to all the five seats and has finally admitted so in the top court.
“There were five vacancies existing during the period in question and the status of one vacancy was not clear due to pending litigation and could be ascertained only after order of this Hon’ble court which came a couple of days before expiration of 6 months’ period. Conducting elections for few parliamentary constituencies while leaving one would have caused logistical and optical issues,” the EC has stated in its petition.
In August, the EC in concurrence with the Union law ministry certified its inability to hold bypolls to four vacant parliamentary seats citing short tenure of a new MP and the EC machinery’s ongoing preparation for the Lok Sabha polls. The same was challenged by petitioner Sughosh Joshi in the Bombay HC which last month pulled up the poll panel and ordered that immediate bypolls be held in Pune.
The EC has filed an SLP under Article 136 of the Constitution of India and sought that the HC order be set aside as it has the potential to create a “fallacious situation wherein the elected candidate may not only get a very short span of tenure but he may not even attend a single parliamentary session.” It has also said that the HC directions failed to consider that it would affect other Lok Sabha vacancies viz. Chandrapur (Maharashtra), Ambala (SC) (Haryana), Ghazipur (Uttar Pradesh) and lead to a “constitutional crisis.”
