Centre allowed to reply by September 5 on PIL against Sachin Tendulkar's nomination to Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today granted more time to the Centre to file its reply on a PIL which challenged the nomination of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to Rajya Sabha.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw granted time till September 5 after Additional Solicitor General Rajiv Mehra submitted that the Centre has filed its reply on a similar plea before the Allahabad High Court and he would like to place a copy of the same before this bench.

Appearing for the petitioner, counsel R K Kapoor opposed the government's stand saying "more than three months have passed and the government has not filed its reply till date."

Earlier, the bench had asked the Centre to explain how was the sports category covered while nominating a sportsperson to the Rajya Sabha.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by Ram Gopal Singh Sisodia, a former Delhi MLA, challenging the nomination alleging Sachin does not possess any of the qualifications prescribed under Article 80 of the Constitution for being nominated to Rajya Sabha.

He said the Constitution allowed the government to select from only four categories - arts, science, literature and social science--and alleged the selection of a sportsperson was unconstitutional.

On May 14, the Supreme Court had refused to quash the batting maestro's nomination to the Upper House and asked Sisodia to rather approach the high court with his plea.