Plea For "Cooling Off Period" For Civil Servants To Contest Polls Junked
NDTV
The Supreme Court said whether there should be any "cooling off period" for civil servants for them to contest elections or not is best left to the legislature concerned.
The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a PIL to impose restrictions to prevent civil servants from contesting elections immediately after retirement or resignation from service, by imposing a "cooling off period", saying it cannot direct the legislature to enact a law.
A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and A S Bopanna said whether there should be any "cooling off period" for civil servants for them to contest elections or not is best left to the legislature concerned.
"In this case, there is no complaint of violation of any fundamental right of the petitioner or any group of persons represented by the petitioner. Nobody has the fundamental right to get a mandatory order of this court directing the appropriate legislature to enact law or the executive to frame rules imposing restrictions on the eligibility of civil servants to contest elections. This writ petition cannot, therefore, be entertained by this court," the bench said.
The top court said a mandamus cannot be issued to direct the respondents to enact law and/or to frame rules even under the wider powers conferred under Article 226 of the Constitution.
