SC reserves judgement on RP Act amendment

The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of amendment in the Representation of the People's Act doing away with the domicile requirement for a candidate for Rajya Sabha election and replacing secret ballot with open ballot.

The judgment was reserved by a constitution bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Mr Justice K G Balakrishnan, Mr Justice S H Kapadia, Mr Justice C K Thakkar and Mr J P K Balasubramanyan on the conclusion of arguments for and against the impugned amendment of section 2 of the RP act.

An outcome of the petitions may have wider repercussions for many political leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh especially if the petitioners succeed.

The Supreme Court has already directed that the bi-annual election to 58 Rajya Sabha seats due to be held this month shall be subject to the outcome of the present writ petition.

Senior Counsel F S Nariman appearing for the petitioners including Kuldeep Nayar and Inderjeet Bhardwaj described the amendment as thoughtless legislation as it is destructive of the federal and basic structure of the Constitution of India.

Senior Counsel Ram Jethmalamani appearing for state of Delhi had contended no illegality was involved in the amendment as article two and three of the constitution conferred power on Parliament to change the basic structure of the constitution.

During the hearing, the government at the Centre and Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state of Madhya Pradesh supported each other.