NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea that had sought to restrict a candidate from contesting the election for the same office from more than one constituency simultaneously, saying it is a matter of “legislative policy”.

A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud observed that candidates may contest elections from different seats due to a variety of reasons and it is Parliament’s will as to whether the course of democracy would be furthered by granting such a choice.

The bench, also comprising justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala, was dealing with a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who had sought to declare section 33(7) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which allows a person to contest a general election or a group of bypolls or biennial elections from two constituencies, as invalid and ultra vires to the Constitution. “Candidates contesting from more than one seat may do it for a variety of reasons,” the bench said.

“Permitting a candidate to contest from more than one seat...is a matter of legislative policy since it is ultimately the Parliament’s will as to whether the political democracy in the country is furthered by granting such a choice,” it said.

The Supreme Court observed that in the absence of any manifest arbitrariness in section 33(7) of the 1951 Act, it would not be possible for it to strike the provision down.

During the arguments, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared in the court on behalf of Upadhyay, said if a candidate contests an election from two seats and gets elected from both, he or she has to vacate one seat, which will lead to a bypoll that will be an additional financial burden on the exchequer.

“When you contest from two seats, you do not know from where you will get elected. What is wrong about it? This is part of electoral democracy,” the court said during the hearing.

It said Parliament can certainly step in, as it did in 1996, and say it is limiting it to one constituency.

Advocate Gopal argued that if a candidate gets elected on two seats it will lead to a bypoll causing financial burden on the exchequer