New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and the Election Commission to respond to a petition seeking a direction not to allow State-level parties to contest Lok Sabha elections. A Bench comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice C.K. Thakker, after hearing senior counsel K. Subramanian for the petitioner, said: "The petition may be perceived in the national interest but we have to see the Constitutional scheme."

It asked him: "Is it not an issue to be decided by the political parties rather than by the court?"

Counsel explained with statistics how the regional parties obtained seats in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections and said the matter required to be examined. The court, which earlier dismissed the petition at the admission stage, agreed to review its decision and asked the petitioner to file an additional affidavit, furnishing relevant information, within four weeks.

In his petition, M.O. Kandasamy Singh, a Chennai-based advocate and president of the Communist Party of India (Dalits), said the country witnessed a fractured verdict in the 10th, 11th and 12th parliamentary elections and no single party could get a majority. The national parties had to seek the help of regional parties to form the government.

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