NEW DELHI: Hearing a plea moved by a BJP leader seeking feasibility of conducting the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies’ polls simultaneously in 2024, the Delhi High Court on Monday said the matter has to be decided by ‘lawmakers’ while refusing to pass any directions.
“We can not do it. It is the domain of the Election Commission. We know our limitations. We are not lawmakers; we ensure compliance of law... We are not going to pass such a mandamus,” a division bench presided over by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma said.
The court also refused to pass another prayer in the PIL to check the feasibility of conducting elections on Saturday, Sunday and Holiday, in order to save time for the schools, colleges, universities, service industries and manufacturing organizations.
However, the bench also comprising Justice Subramonium Prasad, on request of petitioner BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, directed Centre and Election Commission of India to consider the petition as representation and take appropriate steps accordingly.
“Petition stands disposed of with the directions to the respondents to consider it as representation,” the court said. As per the PIL, the elections to assemblies whose terms are expiring in 2023 and 2024 may be brought together with 2024 Lok Sabha Election by curtailing and extending the tenure.
If consensus evolves among political parties; assembly elections of 16 States i.e. Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh• Mizoram, Rajasthan, Telangana, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand can be held with 2024 General Election, the plea contended.
Since, most of these states are ruled by the NDA, the consensus would emerge without much difficulty. This will result in simultaneous assembly elections of 16 States with General Elections 2024, it said.
The plea argued that the conducting of elections together will reduce the cost of campaigning for parties.