SC dismisses petition against issuance of whip by political partie

New Delhi, May 19 (UNI) The Supreme Court has dimsissed a petition seeking directions from it to declare that a political party cannot issue a whip to its members to vote for a particular candidate during the Presidential elections.

Dr Leo Rebello, who had last time contested for the post of the President and had approached 600 MPs for letters of support for him, told the Apex Court yesterday that he was told by the MPs that they cannot do so as they were to abide by the party whip.

Dr Rebello told the bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices B P Singh and G P Mathur that such a whip was illegal and unconstitutional and against the principles of free and fair elections.

The petitioner also contended that such a whip was tantamount to selection of a candidate and not election.

The court, however, did not agree and ruled that it was the right of the political parties and a whip was an effective way of checking cross voting during elections by MPs and MLAs and to prevent them from falling prey to the allurements.

UNI