Pune: A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay high court challenging the State Election Commission (SEC)’s practice to declare candidates elected unopposed without any polling in wards where only one valid nomination remained, saying it violated voters’ constitutional and fundamental rights.Filed by Pune-based social activist Dnyaneshwar Bajirao Darwatkar, the PIL comes just days before elections in 29 municipal corporations on Jan 15. Results would be declared on Jan 16.Darwatkar questioned why returning officers were declaring a candidate elected unopposed without holding the election in constituencies where only one person had submitted valid nomination papers.The petitioner said the practice infringed upon the Constitution’s Article 326 that guarantees the right to vote and Article 19 (1) (a), which protects the voter’s freedom of expression. The plea said the right to vote includes the right to reject a candidate through the NOTA (None of the Above) option on electronic voting machines.“The practice of unopposed elections deprives voters of their constitutional right to express dissent. NOTA is not a symbolic option, but a recognised electoral expression,” the petition said.The PIL also said the SEC’s own order of Nov 6, 2018, treated NOTA as a “fictitious electoral candidate”. Accordingly, a re-election is mandatory in a constituency where NOTA secures more votes than any individual candidate. Declaring candidates elected unopposed without polling is contrary to the Election Commission’s binding order.The petitioner said the matter was urgent since the SEC had already declared candidates elected unopposed in recently announced municipal council and nagar panchayat election results. The move raised concerns that the same practice would be followed in the upcoming civic polls.Darwatkar said the issue struck at the heart of democratic participation. “Elections are for voters. How can we call it elections if voters do not participate? It is a mockery of democracy and harmful. Why should voters lose their right to press NOTA or reject a candidate?” he said.The petitioner said he was not challenging any political party or candidate, but was against “an anti-democratic electoral practice”. The petition sought directions to mandate voting even in wards with a single candidate, allow voters to exercise the NOTA option and order re-elections wherever NOTA secures the highest number of votes.An urgent application was filed requesting that the matter be circulated before a division bench of the Chief Justice and justice Gautam Ashwin Ankhad, as the civic elections are imminent. The petitioner said if the court does not intervene before polling and results, the voters’ rights in affected wards would be taken away irreversibly.
