Bar candidates from contesting more than one seat during polls, Election Commission tells Supreme Court

The Election Commission has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, requesting that candidates be barred from contesting more than one seat during elections. The move comes a few months after advocate Ashwini Upadhyay filed a plea in the apex court, making the same request. According to CNN-News18, the EC’s affidavit highlighted that candidates should be restricted from contesting more than one seat simultaneously as it is an unnecessary burden on the exchequer and is an injustice to the voters of the winning candidate. The affidavit further added that candidates vacating a seat must be made to pay for the by-election.

#BREAKING -- EC backs PIL supporting one candidate, 1 seat. EC says, nobody should be allowed to contest from more than one seat. EC files affidavit in Supreme Court | @utkarsh_aanand with more details #OneNetaOneSeat pic.twitter.com/rNMbO1SqBa

— News18 (@CNNnews18) April 4, 2018

The matter will be heard in six weeks, the Supreme Court observed. In December 2017, Upadhyay had said, “Direct the Centre and the Election Commission to take appropriate steps to restrict people from contesting election for the same office from more than one constituency simultaneously.” The Supreme Court had then directed that copies of the petition seeking to restrict a candidate from contesting from more than one constituencies simultaneously in an election, be served on the attorney-general and the Election Commission. With inputs from PTI