Supreme Court seeks response from External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in plea challenging his election to Rajya Sabha

The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, sought the response of External Affairs minister Dr. S Jaishankar in a plea challenging his election to the Rajya Sabha from the State of Gujarat..A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice to Jaishankar and asked him to file his reply by December 8. .The petition filed by Congress leader, Gaurav Pandya has assailed Jaishankar'e election claiming that the Election Commission (EC) issuing separate notifications for holding by-polls for casual and regular vacancies in Rajya Sabha was in violation of the law..The Gujarat High Court had, in September 2019, dismissed Pandya's plea. Pandya, in his appeal before the Supreme Court, has stated that the High Court erred in law by ruling that the election petition filed by Pandya was to be dismissed in limine on the ground that he was “neither a voter nor a candidate in the election in question.” .The plea filed through Advocate-on-Record, Christi Jain states that in 2017 Amit Shah and Smriti Irani were elected to the Rajya Sabha. Later in 2019 they got elected to the Lok Sabha and, consequently, two seats fell vacant..It is Pandya's case that in order to fill up the vacancies so created, the EC was required to notify the vacancies under section 147 of the Representation of People Act, 1951, calling upon the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Gujarat to elect a person for filling up the vacancies..But only a single notification notifying such casual vacancies and calling upon the legislative assembly of the State to elect alternate candidates ought to have been issued by the EC, Pandya has submitted. ."It is however submitted that the election commission proceeded to issue two separate notifications for the two vacancies and taking advantage of the two notifications issued by the election commission, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly purportedly held two separate elections on the same day (i.e. 5.7.2009) to fill up the vacancies caused in the Rajya Sabha,"the petition states. .Pandya has contended that by following the process of dual elections, the two vacant seats “were usurped by the BJP” but if single elections were held, then Congress could have won at least one of the seats. “The appellant submits that in view of Article 80 (4) of the Constitution of India, the election to the Rajya Sabha is required to be held by allowing proportional representation as explained under the Conduct Of Election Rules, 1961. It is submitted that if a proper procedure was followed, at least one out of the two seats which fell vacant ought to have fallen into the share of the Indian National Congress (INC) which had 72 members out of 180 members in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly,” reads the plea..The Bench took note of the submissions of Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for Pandya, that a date be fixed for hearing these matters."We will give you short date and it will be listed on non miscellaneous day," the court said at the hearing which was conducted via video conference.Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Jaishankar, accepted notice..[Read petition].[Read Order]