Court dismisses petition that challenges Tendulkar’s nomination to Rajya Sabha
20 Dec 2012 2:25 AM GMT
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the nomination of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to the Rajya Sabha was dismissed by the Delhi high court on Wednedsay. The court had reserved its order last month after hearing the arguements.
‘The petition is dismissed, a bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said. Ram Gopal Singh Sisodia, a former Delhi Member of Legislative Assembly, had filed the PIL in the high court challenging nomination of Tendulkar alleging that he does not possess any of the qualifications prescribed under Article 80 of the Constitution for being nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
‘A bare reading of the article makes it clear that the person to be nominated should have special knowledge or practical experience in matters like literature, science, arts and social service, but the expertise so required for nomination is not confined to the specific illustrations given in the article, Sisodia had said in his petition.
Sisodia’s counsel said that the Constitution allowed the government to nominate to the Rajya Sabha persons only from four fields – arts, science, literature and social science – and said that the nomination of a sports person to the Rajya Sabha was unconstitutional.
The central government had said that Tendulkar’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha is as per constitutional provision, which also allows induction of experts from the field of sports. He had said that the provision under Article 80 of the Constitution is not confined to inducting experts only from the fields of science, arts, literature and social services but also from sports, education and other areas.
The central government had said in an affidavit to the court that ‘The special knowledge and practical experience required for the purpose is not confined to the said four categories only but would also include categories like sports, education, law, history, academics attainments, Indology, economics, journalism... or other similar fields of human endeavour.’
‘The petition is dismissed, a bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said. Ram Gopal Singh Sisodia, a former Delhi Member of Legislative Assembly, had filed the PIL in the high court challenging nomination of Tendulkar alleging that he does not possess any of the qualifications prescribed under Article 80 of the Constitution for being nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
‘A bare reading of the article makes it clear that the person to be nominated should have special knowledge or practical experience in matters like literature, science, arts and social service, but the expertise so required for nomination is not confined to the specific illustrations given in the article, Sisodia had said in his petition.
Sisodia’s counsel said that the Constitution allowed the government to nominate to the Rajya Sabha persons only from four fields – arts, science, literature and social science – and said that the nomination of a sports person to the Rajya Sabha was unconstitutional.
The central government had said that Tendulkar’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha is as per constitutional provision, which also allows induction of experts from the field of sports. He had said that the provision under Article 80 of the Constitution is not confined to inducting experts only from the fields of science, arts, literature and social services but also from sports, education and other areas.
The central government had said in an affidavit to the court that ‘The special knowledge and practical experience required for the purpose is not confined to the said four categories only but would also include categories like sports, education, law, history, academics attainments, Indology, economics, journalism... or other similar fields of human endeavour.’
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