Relief for EAM Jaishankar; Gujarat HC dismisses plea challenging Rajya Sabha bypolls

The Gujarat High Court gave relief to the Minister of External Affairs of India, S Jaishankar, on Tuesday by dismissing a plea challenging the validity of Rajya Sabha by-polls which were conducted in July 2019.

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Congress' petition in High Court

A petition had been filed by Congress leaders in the High Court challenging that the Election Commission - by issuing two different notifications for the same Bypolls of two seats had violated the constitutional provisions. "They (BJP) did not have the numbers, that's why they might've gotten something done so that Election Commission issued two notification. Rajya Sabha elections have first and second preferences. They would not have won both the seats. So they did this," Paresh Dhanani, leader of Opposition, Gujarat State Assembly had stated at the time.

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In reply to this, the legal team of Jaishankar and Jugalji Thakore (the other winning candidate of BJP in the by-polls of two seats) had filed a plea to dismiss the application made by Congress leaders. Also, an affidavit by the EAM was filed in the court, claiming that it was in the purview of the Election Commission to declare two separate elections for two separate seats; that this has been a practice of Election Commission since 2009 to issue separate notifications for casual vacancies.

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The court ordered in favour of the two winning candidates of BJP and dismissed the applications made by Congress leaders.

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