Supreme Court no to petition for steps to check namesakes in poll

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, May 3

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a PIL seeking a direction to the Election Commission to urgently put in place an effective mechanism to deal with the issue of namesake, imposter and duplicate candidates contesting the elections.

“You know what is the fate of the case… If someone’s parents have given a similar name, can it come in the way of contesting elections? If somebody is born as Rahul Gandhi or if somebody is born as Lalu Prasad Yadav, how will they be prevented from contesting elections? Wouldn’t it affect their rights?” a Bench led by Justice BR Gavai told the counsel for petitioner Sabu Steephen.

As the Bench was not inclined to entertain the PIL, the petitioner’s counsel chose to withdraw it and accordingly, the petition was dismissed as withdrawn. Citing the example of former Tamil Nadu CM and former AIADMK leader O Paneerselvam, the petitioner said there were four other candidates with the same name in the same Parliamentary Constituency in Phase 1 of the Lok Sabha poll. All five candidates with O Paneerselvam name were independent candidates. He wanted the EC to publish the candidates’ list with serial number and coloured photographs. “They are getting ‘sponsorships’ from rival parties, which include money, materials and other offers, including liquor, and the same squarely covered the corrupt practices as indicated in the RP Act 1951,” the petitioner submitted.