Sejal Chaturvedi –
The Election Commission has been served with a legal notice for not responding to a PIL filed by C Rajashekharan for supervising free and fair party elections.
In the notice the Court has said that the Commission had shown a complete disregard to the petition. Further it has been stated that if the Commission does not respond in 7 days, then the petitioner would have the right to start contempt of court proceedings.
On 11th November, 2020 petitioner Rajashekharan had approached the Election Commission for establishing democracy in internal matters of political parties. When he received no response, he filed a PIL.
The political parties were to obverse every political event maintaining internal democracy.
As per the Commission’s 1996 notice it said that all political parties were to have internal elections with respect to the principles laid down in their own constitutions.
Post 1996, the Commission supervised on internal party elections but it granted extension to some parties and on the other hand urged other parties to conduct elections earlier than the time it was asked for.
The whole issue comes in the light of the current turmoil in internal affairs of the Indian National Congress in the States of Punjab and Rajasthan.