Do not allot symbol to political parties who have criminals as candidates: SC to Election Commission

With India eyeing several state elections this year and national polls next year, the Supreme Court on Tuesday mooted the idea for stopping criminals from contesting polls.
Supreme Court of India  (Photo | EPS)
Supreme Court of India (Photo | EPS)

NEW DELHI: With India eyeing several state elections this year and national polls next year, the Supreme Court on Tuesday mooted the idea for stopping criminals from contesting polls by empowering the Election Commission to deny symbol to political parties who field criminals as candidates and also ask political parties to get their members disclose criminal cases against them so that the electors know how many "alleged crooks" are there in such parties.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra is hearing a batch of petitions asking for a ban on criminals from entering politics and said, "Can we give power to the Election Commission to deny symbol to political parties who field criminals as candidates. Can't Election Commission insist political parties to get new members to declare on affidavit if there is any criminal case pending against them, such affidavits should be made public so voters know how many -"alleged crooks-" there are in a political party.

"This led Attorney General K K Venugopal told the bench, "It will have serious consequences and it is unconstitutional."AG further added that a step like that meant imposing sanctions against members of the party and would open up a new arena to fight each other by filing more cases against opponents.

Disagreeing with Centre, Justice Rohinton F Nariman asserted that the Supreme Court is not stepping into parliament's territory and said, "Until parliament decides, we can direct the Election Commission to add one condition to the symbol order saying if a person has criminal charges, he will not get a symbol. We are not stepping into the Parliament arena."Senior advocate Krishnan Venugopal, who is fighting the case against his father and Attorney General K K Venugopal, suggested that to deal with the issue, either a law may be passed or the court can direct the poll panel to ask political parties not to give tickets to persons with criminal records and also suggested that the fixed election symbol of a national or state level recognised political parties may be cancelled if they gave tickets to such candidates.

Senior advocate Dinesh Dwivedi, appearing for petitioner NGO 'Public Interest Foundation', urged the court to venture into the area of barring a person or a lawmaker from entering into electoral politics after the framing charges against them in criminal cases and referred to a report of the Law Commission and said it was an eye opener document prepared at the instance of the apex court. The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on August 28.

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