(Image source from: Times Now)

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that NOTA (None of the above) option cannot be allowed in the Rajya Sabha elections as it would "wholly undermine the purity of democracy".

"The option of NOTA may serve as an elixir in direct elections but in respect of election to Council of States which is a different one, it would wholly undermine the purity of democracy and also serve as the Satan of defection and corruption," said a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud.

Reversing a notification issued by the Election Commission introducing NOTA in Rajya Sabha elections, Chief Justice Misra speaking for the bench said: "The introduction of NOTA in indirect election may on the first glance tempt the intellect but on a keen scrutiny, it falls to the ground, for it completely ignores the role of an elector in such an election and fully destroys the democratic value."

"The idea may look attractive but its practical applications defeat the fairness ingrained in an indirect election," the court said.

"More so where the electors' vote has value and the value of that vote is transferable... It is an abstraction which does not withstand the scrutiny of the 'cosmos of correctness'," it added quoting Justice Krishna Iyer.

The apex court said it has to be remembered that "democracy garners its strength from the citizenry trust which is sustained only on the foundational pillars of purity, integrity, probity, and rectitude and such strongholds can be maintained only by ensuring the process of election remains unsullied and unpolluted so that the citadel of democracy stand still as an impregnable bulwark against unscrupulous forces".

By Sowmya Sangam