SC notice to govt on plea to ban convicts from running parties

The Supreme Court on Friday sought the responses from the Centre and the Election Commission on a plea seeking to restrain convicted persons from forming political parties and becoming their office-bearers for the period they are disqualified under the election law, reports PTI.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, while asking whether the court could stop a person from propagating his political views, agreed to examine the constitutional validity of section 29A of the 1951 Representation of the People Act (RPA) which deals with the power of the poll panel to register a political party.

The bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, was informed by senior lawyers Siddharth Luthra and Sajan Poovayya that under the statutory schemes, the poll panel was empowered to register political parties, but it lacked the authority under the RPA to de-register them.

The bench, however, said it would be against the freedom of speech and expression to debar a convicted person from propagating political views through a party.

“Can a court restrain a convicted person from forming a political party? Can you stop a man from propagating his political views,” the bench asked and fixed the plea for hearing after six weeks.

“Why is the Election Commission clothed with the power to merely register a political party, but not to deregister it,” it asked while issuing notices to the Centre and the ECI on the plea filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, a lawyer and Delhi BJP spokesperson.