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Election Commission of India v. Bajrang Bahadur Singh & Others (with Transferred Case No. 60 of 2015)

Special Leave Petition (Civil) · Neutral citation not assigned (Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 8850 of 2015)Decided 9 Apr 2015
Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 8850 of 2015
Justice J. Chelameswar · Justice R.K. Agrawal

Background

Bajrang Bahadur Singh was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 2012. In January 2015 the Governor of U.P., acting under Article 192 of the Constitution, declared that Singh had become disqualified because he had entered into and performed government contracts after his election, in violation of Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act. When the Election Commission moved to hold a by-election for the resulting vacancy, Singh challenged the Governor's decision in the Allahabad High Court, which stayed the by-election process; the Election Commission then approached the Supreme Court against that stay, and Singh's own writ petition was transferred to the Supreme Court as well.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court rejected Singh's argument that Section 9A only bars a person from contesting an election in the first place and cannot be used to unseat a sitting member for a contract entered into after election, holding that the provision is meant to prevent exactly this kind of ongoing conflict between a legislator's personal contractual interests and public duty. It also rejected his alternative argument that the disqualification lapsed once he finished performing the contracts. Having rejected both submissions, the Court dismissed Singh's writ petition (the transferred case) and, as a consequence, disposed of the Election Commission's SLP as well. The Court went further and laid down a general procedural rule for future cases: since the law prescribes no limitation period for challenging a Governor's Article 192 disqualification order, anyone aggrieved must approach the High Court within eight weeks of the Governor's decision, such proceedings must be heard by a bench of at least two judges and decided within eight weeks, and the High Court's Chief Justice must make arrangements to ensure this timeline is met, all to protect the Election Commission's own six-month statutory deadline to hold the by-election.

Lesson Learnt

An elected legislator who enters into government contracts after taking office can be validly disqualified under Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act even though the disqualification is discovered and declared only after the election, and finishing or exiting such a contract does not retroactively cure the disqualification. The judgment also fixes a strict, previously unwritten eight-week timeline for challenging such disqualifications in court, to keep by-elections from being indefinitely delayed by litigation.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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