Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls to be held with NOTA; SC refuses to stay poll panel's notification

In a setback to Congress party, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay Election Commission's notification allowing None Of The Above (NOTA) option for Rajya Sabha poll.

The top court, however, agreed to examine constitutional validity of poll panel's notification to give an option of NOTA in elections.

The plea was mentioned before a bench comprising justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar by senior counsel Kapil Sibal who had sought an urgent hearing on the ground that there was no statutory provision for the none of the above (NOTA) option in the ballot paper for these elections.

The BJP has fielded its national president Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and Balwantsinh Rajput for the three Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat against the lone Congress candidate Ahmed Patel.

The election is scheduled on August 8.

Chief whip of the Congress in the Gujarat Assembly Shailesh Manubhai Parmar in his petition had sought quashing of the August one circular issued by the secretary of the Assembly. The circular has stated that the NOTA option would be made applicable in the Upper House elections.

The petition alleged that use of the option would be violative of the provisions of the Representation of People's Act, 1951 and the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

The direction to have NOTA in the elections was enforced in January 2014 after the Supreme Court in 2013 made it mandatory to have the option in the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

In the Rajya Sabha polls, the MLAs have to show their ballot paper to an authorised party agent before putting it in ballot box.