Barring criminals from polls: Govt to file report by Apr. 18

The Supreme Court on Friday granted time till April 18 to the Centre to file its response on a PIL whether a person facing a criminal case in a heinous crime can be disqualified from contesting Assembly or Parliamentary elections at the stage of filing chargesheet or framing of charges or only after conviction.

A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi granted time on a request made by counsel for the Centre seeking further time though notice was issued on the PILs on January 5 this year. The PILs filed by Public Interest Foundation in 2011, Delhi BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and others question ‘Whether disqualification for membership can be laid down by the Court beyond Article 102 (a) to (d) in the Constitution and the law made by Parliament under Article 102(e).”

The issue was raised in a PIL by Public Interest Foundation in 2011 seeking a direction to debar charge sheeted persons from contested elections.

During the course of hearing the matter was referred to the Law Commission of India. In its report, the Commission said “disqualification upon conviction has proved to be incapable of curbing the growing criminalisation politics, owing to long delays in trials and rare convictions. The law needs to evolve to pose an effective deterrence, and to prevent subversion of the process of justice.”

The Commission said the filing of the police report under Section 173 of the CrPC (chargesheet) is not an appropriate stage to introduce electoral disqualifications owing to the lack of sufficient application of judicial mind at this stage.