[dropcap]I[/dropcap]N a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court today directed the political parties to publish criminal backgrounds, if any, of their candidates for general elections and assembly polls.
Putting the political parties on a tight leash, a two-judge bench of Justices Rohinton F Nariman and Ravindra Bhat ordered all parties to publish details of candidates with a criminal background on their official website, local and national newspapers and on their social media handles.
The court also directed the political parties to give reasons for fielding such candidates for election over people without any criminal antecedents.
In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court today directed the Indian political parties to publish criminal backgrounds, if any, of their candidates for general elections and assembly polls.
Putting the political parties on a tight leash, a two-judge bench of Justices Rohinton F Nariman and Ravindra Bhat ordered all parties to publish details of candidates with a criminal background on their official website, local and national newspapers and on their social media handles.
The court also directed the political parties to give reasons for fielding such candidates for election over people without any criminal antecedents.
The apex court gives the following directions:
It shall be mandatory for political parties [at the Central and State election level] to upload on their website detailed information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases (including the nature of the offences, and relevant particulars such as whether charges have been framed, the concerned Court, the case number etc.) who have been selected as candidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates.
The court also directed that "if a political party fails to submit such compliance report with the Election Commission, the Election Commission shall bring such non-compliance by the political party concerned to the notice of the Supreme Court as being in contempt of this Court's orders/directions".
The court passed the above-directions in a contempt petition filed by Public Interest Foundation against the failure of Election Commission of India to comply with the directions laid down by the Constitution Bench in 2018 on the criminalisation of politics.
A five-judge bench led by then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra directed that the candidates should widely publicize the details of the criminal cases pending against them, both in the investigation stage or trial state.