The correctional jurisdiction of courts can be applied only if a number of members of the electoral college are put behind the bars with a view to deprive them of the opportunity to vote so as to achieve a desired result, the High Court said.
“In such an exceptional situation, the Court may be justified in issuing directions so that the ‘custody’ of the members of the electoral college does not become a subterfuge for divesting them of their right to vote,” the Court opined.
The observations of the Court came in the 23-page order rejecting the pleas of Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik and former state home minister Anil Deshmukh seeking leave to cast vote in the upcoming member of Maharashtra Legislative Council elections.
The two applicants claimed that high courts had wide discretionary powers to set aside the statutory embargo under Section 62 (5) of the Representation of People Act on prisoners to go and cast their vote in elections.
Justice NJ Jamadar held that courts could not be completely denuded of the authority to exercise its jurisdiction to grant permission to vote, however the same is conditional.
Since in the present case, no motive of preventing the two MLAs from participating in the electoral process could be attributed to the arrest, the pleas by Malik and Deshmukh were rejected by the Court.
Source: Barandbench
