Uncertainity over Assembly elections in Bihar surfaced on Thursday with the Supreme Court advancing the hearing date on petitions to decide whether the Presidential proclamation dissolving the Assembly was valid or not.
The Election Commission found itself in a difficult situation when a constitution bench, comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice B N Agrawal, Justice Ashok Bhan and Justice Arijit Pasayat asked its counsel as to what would happen to the poll process if the Court struck down the Presidential proclamation holding it invalid.
Struck by the enormity of the question, EC counsel S Muralidhar said the poll process would formally commence from
September 23, when the notification would be issued and that no court could interfere with it thereafter.
Not satisfied, the Bench sought the opinions of Attorney General Milon Banerjee, Additional Solicitor General Gopal
Subramaniam and former Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee, all of whom unequivocally said if the Court strikes down the proclamation, then the EC would have to annul the poll schedule.
Muralidhar added that the EC was facing confusion as the Court has not yet decided the applications seeking stay
on the poll schedule.
The Bench, which advanced the hearing dates of the writ petitions challenging the dissolution of the Assembly from
September 27 to September 20 indicating an early decision on them, disposed of the applications saying the petitioners were not pressing the prayer for stay in view of the advancement of the hearing schedule.
