"All that a politician/ruling party-in-power would need to do to prevent rivals from contesting an election is to ask police to file a case and to arrest the rival," it added.
The bench further clarified that "our criminal justice system is based on the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty', we can not presume our undertrials in custody to be guilty as far as right to contest election is concerned".
"We are of the view that the impugned Representation of People (Amendment and Validation) Act 2013 is within legislative competence of parliament," the bench held while dismissing the PIL.
On the sideline, the bench noted that it was "trite that right to vote is not a fundamental right or constitutional right, but only a statutory right".
Filing the PIL, Sharma had challenged the Sep 29, 2013 amendment in the Representation of People Act by the government. The amendment in the act enables arrested people to contest elections as a person does not cease to be an elector only by reason of his being in police custody or in imprisonment.
Updated on: February 06, 2014 22:36 IST
