The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused, for a second time, to ban a contentious new law on the appointment of election commissioners; the court has, though, added the petition to a list of pending cases and said these will be heard in April.
Filed by Congress Jaya Thakur and others, the petition argues that the provisions of the law are violative of the principle of free and fair polls since it does not provide an "independent mechanism" for the appointment of election commissioners.