Hold elections to 3 Rajya Sabha seats before Assembly term expires: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court on Monday said that elections to three Rajya Sabha seats in the state, which are falling vacant on April 21, should be held before the present legislative Assembly’s term expires.

Observing that the legislators of the outgoing Assembly have the right to cast their votes, the bench of Justice P V Asha, in an interim order, directed the Election Commission (EC) to complete the process by May 2, the day results of the recently concluded Assembly elections would be announced.

Last week, considering the petitions of CPI (M) legislator S Sharma and the state legislative Assembly secretariat, the EC had told the high court that it would be “just, fair and constitutional” to announce the election for the three seats after the new legislative Assembly is constituted.

At the same time, the EC reiterated that the schedule of the Upper House elections would be notified before the three incumbent members from Kerala retire.

Sharma had moved the high court challenging the EC decision to keep in abeyance its earlier notification to conduct the Rajya Sabha elections before April 21, the day these three seats would fall vacant.

The CPI (M) legislator was of the view that the EC move to delay the election process would deny the sitting legislators of the current Assembly their right to vote.

As per the original notification, the elections to the three Rajya Sabha seats should be held on April 12. The EC was of the view that as the voting for the Assembly elections ended on April 6, giving the outgoing Assembly members a chance to vote would not reflect the will of the people.