Can’t ban criminals in politics, says SC
TIME FOR NEW LAW Publicise cases against candidates, parties told
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to disqualify candidates facing serious criminal charges from contesting polls, and left it to Parliament to come up with a suitable law to decriminalise the country’s polity.
A Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra, however, made it mandatory for such candidates to inform their party about the criminal cases pending against them. The concerned political party, the court said, should put up on its website information regarding the criminal antecedents. Political parties will have to widely publicise the criminal background of the candidate, the court said, in an acknowledgement of the people’s right to make an informed decision.
Wide publicity means dissemination of information in papers and electronic media at least thrice after filing of nomination papers,and where a candidate has to give details of criminal cases in bold letters.
“They (politicians facing criminal cases) should be kept at bay. We are sure, the law making wing of the democracy of this country will take it upon itself to cure the malignancy. We say so as such a malignancy is not incurable. It only depends upon the time and stage when one starts treating it; the sooner the better, before it becomes fatal to democracy,” said the five-judge bench, also comprising justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.
The top court was dealing
with a batch of PILs filed by NGOs Public Interest Foundation and Bharatiya Matdata Sangathan and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay asking for a ban on politicians with criminal backgrounds from participating in elections. The Congress said it would support the NDA government if it brings a legislation to ensure criminals are kept out of politics. “We want that the tainted people should stay away from politics. The elements who have criminal backgrounds and also those who have escaped criminal backgrounds should not be in politics,” senior Congress leader and former Union law minister Kapil Sibal told reporters.
Nearly 34% of current MPs have serious criminal charges pending against them, the petitioners submitted. The Centre opposed the pleas, saying the issue was within the domain of Parliament and a person is deemed innocent until proven guilty. Currently, only a convicted lawmaker who is punished with a jail term of three years or more is debarred from contesting elections for a period of six years from the date on which the sentence ends.