On Tuesday, the Supreme Court scrapped the use of ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) option in the coming Rajya Sabha elections.
A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra said that the NOTA option is meant only for universal adult suffrage and direct elections and not polls held by the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote as done in the Rajya Sabha.
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The Bench had reserved for judgment on a petition filed in 2017 by Gujarat Congress leader Shailesh Manubhai Parmar to do away with the ‘NOTA’ option in Rajya Sabha elections. The petition was filed in connection with the Rajya Sabha election in which Congress leader Ahmed Patel was contesting.
The CJI even then indicated that the court may indeed rule against the two circulars issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on January 24, 2014, and November 12, 2015, giving the Rajya Sabha members the option to press the NOTA button in the Upper House polls.
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