PIL on early-poll ‘waste’

New Delhi, March 15: Unscheduled elections are a colossal loss of public money, a PIL filed in the Supreme Court has said.
“The intention of the framers of the Constitution was clear that unless and until there are grave and compelling circumstances… the mandatory period of five years prescribed for the House of the People as well as the Assemblies be adhered to,” the petition said.
Filed by a Mumbai-based NGO, the All India Muslim OBC Organisation, the PIL said that when the Constitution came into being, frequent dissolution of Parliament or Assemblies at the “whims and fancies” of political parties had not been envisaged.
The PIL listed the Union of India, through the home ministry secretary, the Election Commission and almost all political outfits as parties.
It pointed out that the country has held 16 general elections when there would have been only 12 had the House been dissolved every five years.
If this “wasteful expenditure”, passed on to taxpayers, is diverted to development, “the results will be phenomenal”, the NGO said in its petition.
The Telegraph; OUR LEGAL CORRESPONDENT