New Delhi: Supreme Court on Monday turned down former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and Minister Nawab Malik's plea seeking temporary release to cast their votes in the MLC elections today.
The plea was rejected by the vacation bench of C T Ravikumar and Sudhanshu Dhulia. The Bench agreed to look into the interpretation of Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People's Act which prohibits a prisoner from casting his or her vote. The Bench pointed out that the Supreme Court earlier upheld the constitutional validity of Section 62(5) in cases such as the Ankul Chandra Pradhan case in 1997.
Earlier Deshmukh and Malik's plea to vote in the MLC election was rejected by the Bombay High Court which said that the constitutional right to vote is not absolute. Both of them moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court's order. Deshmukh and Malik are currently in prison in separate money laundering and corruption cases.
