EC: STEPS TO KEEP OUT CRIMINALS NOT WORKING
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission told the Supreme Court on Friday its 2018 direction asking poll candidates to declare their criminal antecedents in the media has not helped curb criminalisation of politics, and suggested that parties should be asked not to give tickets to those with criminal background.
NEW DELHI : The directions issued by the Supreme Court in 2018 to give publicity to the criminal antecedents of candidates contesting elections has failed to yield the desired result of decriminalizing politics, the Election Commission of India (EC) told the apex court on Friday.
A bench of justices Rohinton Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat agreed to consider whether directions can be issued to political parties to deny tickets to persons with criminal background.
The court was hearing a contempt plea filed by advocate and
BJP spokesperson Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay who alleged that despite directions by the Supreme Court, the government and the EC failed to take steps for decriminalisation of politics. The court asked the EC to come up with a proposal to address the issue. In its judgment delivered on September 25, 2019, the top court had recommended enactment of a strong law to decriminalize politics. It had issued directions to contesting candidates to disclose details of pending criminal cases against them in the form provided by the EC. It had also ordered political parties to publicise on their websites and in print and electronic media the criminal antecedents of its candidates.
Upadhyay submitted that the EC issued directions to political parties but did not make the necessary amendments to the rules governing this field, so its directions did not have any legal sanctions. Further, the EC did not give a list of leading newspapers and news channels wherein the criminal antecedents had to be publicised, so political parties did so in unpopular newspapers and news channels and at odd hours when people don’t watch TV.
The plea said that the consequences of permitting criminals to contest elections and become legislators were serious.