Upload details of criminal history of candidates on website within 48 hours: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has directed all political parties to upload details of criminal history of candidates on their website. Details of criminal cases against election candidates and the reasons why a political party had selected them should be mentioned on websites, social media and vernacular medium newspapers within 48 hours of selection. Details should be provided to Election Commission within 72 hours.

"The reason to select candidates should be based on merit and not winnability. Winnability can't be the only justification," the apex court said.

In case of any void of information then the EC could initiate contempt of court proceedings.

The apex court noted that there was an alarming rise in the criminalization of politics. The order was issued after contempt petitions were filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and others.

In March 2019, the Supreme Court had sought a response from the Election Commission (EC) on a contempt plea for its failure to take steps to enforce a top court judgment mandating the political parties and their candidates in the electoral fray to give wide publicity to the criminal antecedents of the selected candidates.

Appealing for the PIL petitioner Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who had moved the contempt plea against the poll panel, counsel Gopal Sankaranarayanan told the court that the EC has not taken steps to implement the September 25, 2018 judgment in its true spirit by modifying the Form 26 in which a candidate discloses all the details about himself including assets and pending criminal cases, if any and in the Symbol Order.

Upadhyay in his contempt plea had contended that though the Election Commission had issued directions to the political parties and the candidates for publication of criminal antecedents but without amending the Election Symbol Order and Model Code of Conduct these directions have no legal sanctity. Pointing out that the poll panel has not published a list of leading newspapers and news channels with wide circulation and viewership in which the publicity to criminal antecedents has to be given, Upadhyay had contended that it was being taken advantage of by the candidates who were publicising the details of their criminal antecedents in little known newspapers with a short readership base.

The court had directed that the candidate as well as the concerned political party “shall issue a declaration in the widely circulated newspapers in the locality about the antecedents of the candidate and also give wide publicity in the electronic media”. The court had said that the time had come for Parliament to enact a law to “cleanse the polluted stream of politics” by prohibiting people with criminal antecedents in the political system. “The nation eagerly waits for such legislation… and the sooner the better, before it becomes fatal to democracy,” the court had then said.

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