New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that elected candidates cannot be unseated by courts on the basis of frivolous petitions filed by defeated candidates who accuse the winner of adopting unfair electoral practices.
Before unseating a candidate, the standard of proof and evidence should be sufficiently strong enough as required in criminal cases, the apex court said.
"In a democratic country, the will of the people is paramount and the election of elected candidate should not be lightly interfered with.
"At the same time, it is also the bounden duty and obligation of the court to ensure that purity of election process is fully safeguarded and maintained," a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and H S Bedi observed in a judgement.
The apex court passed the ruling while dismissing the appeal filed by Baldev Singh Mann, a Shiromani Akali Dal candidate who lost the 2002 Assembly election from the Dirba (Punjab) Assembly Constituency to Independent candidate Surjit Singh Dhiman.
Mann challenged the election of Dhiman on the ground that the latter had indulged in corrupt practices by roping in two gazetted officials Gurbachan Singh Bacchi and B S Shergil.
It was the allegation of Mann that Dhiman had solicited votes from various persons including the two officers thus influencing the other voters.
