The Supreme Court will hear a petition seeking to debar jailed MPs and MLAs from casting their votes in the Presidential elections scheduled for July 19.
The petition filed by advocate Z K Faizan was mentioned on Tuesday before a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, which agreed to give it a hearing a day before the poll date.
However, the court declined to give an urgent hearing to another advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, who had appealed against the Election Commission's order declining to go into the allegations against UPA-left Presidential nominee Pratibha Patil.
The Bench, also comprising Justices R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari said the petition of Sharma would be heard in regular course on August 17.
The EC declined to go into his representation whether Patil was an "undischarged insolvent or not" in view of alleged irregularities committed by her and her family members in a cooperative bank and a sugar mill.
The petition to prohibit jailed MPs and MLAs from casting votes in the Presidential and Vice Presidential election was moved by advocate Goodwill Indeevar, who opposed the provision allowing them to exercise their franchise if they manage parole.
The petition sought a direction for the Election Commission not to permit the MPs and MLAs from casting their votes from prison.
In the petition, he referred to the reported discussion between Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami about the arrangements made for such MPs and MLAs under special circumstances.
More from rediff