Rajasthan HC dismisses plea for restraining election candidates from visiting religious places during campaigns
The court observed that the PIL was nothing but a virtual repetition of an earlier writ petition which had been dismissed by the court in 2018.
The Rajasthan High Court recently dismissed a writ petition filed seeking direction that candidates who contest elections be restrained from visiting religious places such as Temples, Mosques, Church, Ashram, Math and other places of worship during the election campaign after the elections are notified.
The petitioner further sought general directions to all the political parties and their members not to use caste, religion etc. for the purposes of the elections.
The bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sandeep Mehta dismissed the petition stating that the present plea was a virtual repetition of an earlier writ petition.
It is settled law that successive writ petitions for the same cause of action are not maintainable and that filing of second writ petition for the same purpose is an abuse of the process of law, the court held.
Court pointed out that the earlier writ petition had also been filed by the present petitioner, namely Sant Vaidehi Balabh Dev Acharyaji Maharaj who had sought general directions to the same effect in the previous plea as well.
"In the said writ petition also the petitioner has sought general directions to the same effect that all political parties and the candidates who contest the election can only use their names and identity according to the registration in the Electoral Roll or the nomination form but the surname and the caste of the candidates should not be published during the election campaign and the candidates and leaders of the political parties may be restrained from visiting the religious places during the election campaign," Court observed.
Therefore, stating that the previous petition was dismissed by the court observing that seeking vote in the name of religion, caste, community, language etc. is statutorily prohibited and, therefore, no general directions in this regard are required, the court held,
"In view of the above, we are not inclined to exercise our discretionary jurisdiction in this writ petition and dismiss the writ petition with the directions to the Chief Election Commissioner of India to objectively consider and pass appropriate order on the representation of the petitioner, if any, made in this connection earlier."
Case Title: Sant Vaidehi Balabh Dev Acharyaji Maharaj, Chela Shri Krishna Dasji Maharaj v. State Of Rajasthan and 2 Ors.