SC ask special benches at all High Courts to fast track election petitions

Supreme Court has said that Special Benches should be created at all High Courts in the country to speedily decide election-related petitions. A bench of Justices J. Chelameswar and Rohinton F Nariman asked for creation of earmarked benches with Judges assigned the task of exclusively deciding election petitions.

The bench observed that it is most undesirable to let an MP or MLA continue even for a day if he or she has been elected using illegitimate means. The Court said, it is very rarely an election dispute gets resolved during the tenure of declared candidates reducing the adjudicatory process into a mockery of justice.

The Court was hearing a plea by Congress candidate Mohd. Akbar who complained that his petition challenging the election of Ashok Sahu from Kawardha Assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh is being delayed inordinately.