The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation challenging the nomination of Shobhana Bhartia,
Vice-Chairperson of Hindustan Times Media Ltd, and Chandan Mitra, Editor of The Pioneer, as members of the Rajya Sabha.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation challenging the nomination of Shobhana Bhartia,
Vice-Chairperson of Hindustan Times Media Ltd, and Chandan Mitra, Editor of The Pioneer, as members of the Rajya Sabha.
The Centre For Public Interest Litigation had challenged their nomination to the Upper House as they did not fall under the four categories -- literature, science, art and social service -- mentioned in Article 80 (3) of the Constitution under which the President makes nominations.
A bench headed by Justice Ruma Pal dismissed the petition, observing that the expression "social service" is wide enough to cover such cases.
The petitioner's counsel, Prashant Bhushan, submitted that the nomination of journalists to the Rajya Sabha was being used to compromise the independence of the media.
He argued that journalists and lawyers as a category of people for nomination to Rajya Sabha was proposed in the Constituent Assembly and the proposal was rejected after a debate and therefore their nomination to the Upper House was unconstitutional.
"If your argument is accepted then no journalist can be nominated to the Rajya Sabha," the court said.
"Journalists cannot be bought by nominations to Rajya Sabha," it added.
The petitioner had also requested the court to issue appropriate guidelines regarding the manner of selection of persons to be nominated as members of the Rajya Sabha by the President under Article 80 (1) (a) of the Constitution.
The petitioner sought directions that nominations to the Upper House can only be made from the persons falling in categories/disciplines mentioned in Article 80 (3) of the Constitution.
It demanded prohibition on the nomination of persons "who are otherwise eligible but known political supporters and members of political parties".
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