The Election Commission
(EC) has made a fresh push for amending law to bar people from contesting from more than one seat.
The DC has said that if it cannot be done, then a hefty fine should be imposed on those vacating one of the constituencies and forcing a bypoll.
As per the existing electoral law, a candidate is allowed to file nominations from two different constituencies in a general election or a group of bye-elections or biennial elections. Since one individual is allowed to represent only one constituency in a legislative or parliamentary body, he/she has to vacate the other seat in case victories were registered on both seats.
It has been learnt that in a recent meeting with the Legislative Secretary in the Law Ministry, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar discussed this proposal.
Renewing another one of its long-standing demands, the EC has sought an amendment of Section 33(7) of the Representation of People Act, 1951 to restrict the number of seats a candidate can contest from. The Act currently allows a person to contest a general election or a group of by-elections or biennial elections from up to two constituencies.
Way back in 1996, the government had amended the Representation of the People Act to bar a person from contesting elections from more than two seats.
Prior to the amendment, an individual was permitted to contest polls from as many seats as he wanted.
In 2004, the EC proposed an amendment of Section 33(7) to certain sections of the Act so that a person cannot fight elections from more than one constituency at a time .
The amount of fine then was proposed at Rs 5 lakh for state assembly and legislative council election and Rs 10 lakh for Lok Sabha election. The poll panel believes the amount should be appropriately revised.
The Commission believes that when a candidate contests from two seats, it is imperative that he has to vacate one of the two seats should he win both. This, apart from the consequent unavoidable financial burden on the public exchequer and the manpower and other resources for holding by-election against the resultant vacancy, would be an injustice to the voters of the constituency which the candidate is quitting from.
The Law Commission, which advises government on complex legal issues, had supported the proposal of restricting candidates from more than one seat. However, it had not endorsed the Commission's alternative proposal to require winning candidates to deposit an appropriate amount of money being the expenditure for conducting the elections.