The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation petition which sought a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to consider a plea for enhancing the amount of money to be deposited by the contestants in general as well as Legislative Assembly elections.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy rejected the petition at the admission stage itself after not finding any public interest in it. The judges pointed out that the money to be deposited by the contestants had been fixed under Section 34 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The legal provision requires Scheduled Caste candidates contesting in parliamentary elections to deposit ₹12,500 and the others to deposit ₹25,000. Similarly, the SC candidates contesting in the Assembly elections had to deposit ₹5,000 and the others had to deposit ₹10,000.
The deposited amount was liable to be forfeited if the candidate does not secure considerable number of votes. Claiming that the quantum of deposit was fixed several years ago, the petitioner had urged the court to issue a direction for considering his plea to enhance the amount.
Though the litigant, S. Parthiban of Chennai, had contended that the deposit amount was meagre compared to crores of rupees spent by the candidates for canvassing, the petitioner had not challenged the statutory provision which had fixed the quantum of money to be deposited, the judges pointed out.
In such view of the matter, no direction could be issued to consider enhancement, they said.
