No one in India votes on basis of candidates’ educational qualifications: Supreme Court

• Shubham
• 20 February, 2023

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By: Shubham Ghosh

No one in India votes on the basis of the candidates’ educational qualifications, the Supreme Court of India observed on Monday (20)  while dismissing a plea against the election of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Harsh Vardhan Bajpayee to the assembly of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017.

A bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said voters do not look at a candidate’s educational background before exercising their franchise.

“No one votes on the basis of educational qualifications in our country anyway,” the bench observed orally.

The remarks came while the bench was hearing a plea moved by Congress leader Anugrah Narayan Singh, seeking that Bajpayee’s election be declared null and void as he had indulged in corrupt practices by not disclosing his correct educational qualifications.

The Allahabad High Court rejected Singh’s plea in September last year on the ground of being infructuous as Bajpayee’s term had already ended the same year.

“Though allegations of corrupt practice were levelled against the respondent but the same are not supported by material facts and unimpeachable documents, apart from the fact that the said allegations do not amount to corrupt practice,” the high court had said.

(PTI)