Rajasthan High Court: PIL Dismissed Seeking To Restrain Political Parties, Electoral Candidates From Visiting Religious Places During Election Campaigns

The Rajasthan High Court in the case Sant Vaidehi Balabh Dev Acharyaji Maharaj v. State of Rajasthan and Others observed and has dismissed a public interest litigation which sought directions from the court to restrain candidates from visiting religious places during election campaigns.
In the present case, it had been prayed by the petitioner for issuance of directions to all the political parties and the candidate’s contesting elections to not use religion or caste for the purposes of election and not to visit religious places such as Temples, church, Mosques, Ashram, Maths, and other places of worship during the election campaign, beginning from the period of notification of an election.
The respondents to the petition were State of Rajasthan, the Election Commission of India, and the Chief Election Officer of the Election Commission of Rajasthan
The division bench comprising of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sandeep Mehta observed and has noted that a similar writ petition was filed by the petitioner in 2018. It was then observed by the Court that seeking votes in the name of religion, community, caste, or language was already statutorily prohibited and, however, no general directions in this regard are required. It has also been given by the court the liberty to the petitioner to approach the Election Commission for redressal of his grievances.
It was observed by the bench of Chief Justice Mithal in the order passed on October 18 observed that the fresh petition filled was “nothing but a virtual repetition” of that plea which was filled 2018 and that the reliefs sought then are the same.
The court stated that it is a settled law that successive writ petitions for the same cause of action are not maintainable and that filing of second writ petition for the same purpose is an abuse of the process of law.
Further, it had been directed by the court that the Chief Election Commissioner to objectively consider and pass appropriate order on petitioner’s representation, if any.

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