The pleas of Nationalist Congress Party leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh seeking temporary release from prison to cast their votes in the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections were rejected by the Supreme Court on Monday, Live Law reported. The polls were held today.
A vacation bench of Justices CT Ravikumar and Sudhanshu Dhulia relied on a 1997 case titled Anukul Chandra Pradhan versus the Union of India, in which the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The provision prohibits a jailed person from voting in an election.
On June 17, the Bombay High Court had also refused to allow Malik and Deshmukh to temporarily leave the prison to vote in the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls.
On June 9, the two leaders were denied temporary bail by a special court and the Bombay High Court to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections held the next day.
Malik and Deshmukh have been arrested by the…