New Delhi, April 4
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre seeking its response to a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the newly amended law allowing jailed candidates to contest elections.

A bench comprising Justices HL Dattu and SA Bobde passed the order on an appeal against the February 6, 2014 Delhi High court verdict, upholding the law observing that keeping the poll arena out-of-bounds for such candidates would lead to “vendetta politics” by ruling parties.

“All that a politician/ruling party-in-power would need to do to prevent rivals from contesting an election is to ask the police to file a case and arrest the rivals,” a bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justice Manmohan had pointed out while dismissing a PIL challenging the validity of the law, put in place following the passage of the Representation of the People (Amendment and Validation) Act 2013.

In the appeal, the petitioner-advocate Manohar Lal Sharma said the HC had failed to appreciate the logic behind the SC ruling that since jailed persons were not even entitled to vote they had no right to contest. The basic structure of the Constitution stood altered by allowing candidates to contest from jail, Sharma pleaded.