SC dismisses PIL on post-poll alliance

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a direction to restrain political parties from entering post-poll alliances if they fought with diametrically opposite ideologies or manifestos.

A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi questioned petitioner Rajender Dutt Vasdev’s counsel for making such a request before the court.“Do you think we can direct one political party not to join another? We don’t think this issue could be raised before the court,” said the bench.
Vasdev’s counsel Arup Banerjee submitted that the court should restrain political parties from entering into alliances to form government, especially those who fought elections against each other over contradictory terms in their manifestos. “Can you say that we can control political parties?” questioned the bench again, asking him if the petitioner had approached the Election Commission.

To this, he said he had filed a representation before the poll panel, but had not received any response. The court, however, was not convinced, and dismissed the petition.

According to the petitioner, political parties went against their agenda and manifestos in the lust for power and in a blatant misuse of the mandate.