The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from the Election Commission on a plea seeking re-election in constituencies where the maximum votes go to the None of the Above option, Live Law reported.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra agreed to consider the petition.

The Supreme Court had in 2013 passed an order to introduce the None of the Above option in the Electronic Voting Machines. Voters can choose the option to reject all candidates as unsatisfactory.

On Friday, the petitioner cited the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in Gujarat’s Surat Lok Sabha constituency after the nomination of the Congress candidate was rejected and other candidates withdrew their nominations. The BJP candidate was elected unopposed, according to the rules.

The plea said that even if there is only one candidate left in the contest, the Election Commission should conduct the polls as the voters should have the option to vote for the None of the Above option. “In Surat, where nobody else has appeared, they are forced to go with whoever the candidate is,” Live Law quoted Shiv Khera, the petitioner, as having told the court.

On April 21, the district election officer in Surat rejected the nomination papers filed by Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani on the grounds that the signatures of his three proposers had been allegedly forged.

Besides Kumbhani, there were four independents, one from the Bahujan Samaj Party and three from local parties. However, all eight of them also withdrew their nomination for vague reasons.

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