India, Feb. 3 -- The Supreme Court on Monday cautioned high courts against interfering with the election process, underscoring that constitutional courts must refrain from granting liberal interim reliefs to individuals and remain conscious of the larger public interest in ensuring smooth and uninterrupted conduct of elections.

A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta held that since the right to contest or challenge an election is statutory in nature, it must be strictly construed and exercised only in accordance with the law governing the field. Courts, it said, must exercise restraint once the electoral process has commenced.

"The high court must, therefore, eschew the grant of liberal interim reliefs in favour of individual...