The Supreme Court recently described the criminalisation of politics as ‘rot’. The Supreme Court said it may consider directing the Election Commission to ask political parties to get their members to disclose criminal cases against them so that the electors know how many “alleged crooks” are there in such parties and exercise their votes rightly.
“Why can’t we exhort Parliament like the Law Commission does to address the problem? Why can’t we take clue from Section 33A of the Representation of People Act and direct the Election Commission to include in Symbol order a stipulation to bar people with criminal antecedents from the electoral fray?” the court inquired. It consisted of the bench which had Justices Rohinton Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.
The five-judge constitution bench, comprising of the senior-most judges of the SC, is hearing a number of petitions which requested the judiciary to look into the characters who contested elections. The next hearing in the matter will take place on August 28. A series of state elections are scheduled to be held this year, while the Lok Sabha election is due to be held next year in India, hence this
Senior advocate Dinesh Dwivedi, appearing for petitioner NGO ‘Public Interest Foundation’, requested the court to venture into the area where a person’s character is determined before entering into electoral politics.
He referred to a report of the Law Commission and said it was an “eye-opener” document which the SC must take into consideration.
Attorney General, Venugopal also said that the EC can ask the political parties to insert by-laws in their constitutions and recruitment process so that they will not allow persons, who are facing trial in cases. In case, they actually participate in elections, they have to serve a minimum sentence of a prescribed jail term. It would serve the “larger good of the society”, he added. The court officially declared the criminalising of politics to be an ‘anti-thesis’ to democracy.