Orissa HC Rejects Plea Against Hike In Minimum Deposit Money For Contesting Polls

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has dismissed a petition filed challenging hike in minimum deposit money for contesting in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections on the ground that the law was neither ‘irrational’ nor ‘illogical’.

President of Odisha Durniti Sangharsa Mancha, Uma Charan Mishra had filed a petition, questioning the Section 34 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, in 2018. As per the Act, minimum deposit money for contesting in Assembly elections was raised from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 and that for Lok Sabha from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000.

Hearing the petition on Tuesday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice RK Pattanaik said the provision is meant to ensure that the election is contested by serious candidates and not non-serious contestants who cannot garner minimum votes.

“The legislative scheme appears to be that even if a person of modest means who has to borrow to make a deposit of the minimum amount for elections to the Parliament or the Legislative Assembly, as the case may be, is unable to win the election, he can still hope to get the amount refunded provided of course he is able to secure a minimum number of votes,” TNIE quoted the bench as saying.

“This way the elections are open to serious candidates and not to non-serious ones, who are not in a position to even muster the minimum range of support. The court is unable to find the scheme itself to be arbitrary and irrational. It appears to be logical,” the bench observed.

The bench further said minimum deposit does not act as deterrent, particularly since it is an amount that is refundable in terms of Section 158 of the RP Act.