Political parties are to publish information regarding criminal antecedents of candidates within 48 hours of selection: Supreme Court

By - Divisha Srivastava*

The Supreme Court has issued a series of directions ensuring that voters have access to detailed information about the criminal records of contesting candidates.

The bench comprising Justices RF Nariman and BR Gavai was hearing a contempt petition filed by one Brajesh Singh, a Delhi-based lawyer, contending that the judgment of the Supreme Court dated February 13, 2020, was not complied with as the criminal antecedents of the candidates in the November 2020 Bihar Assembly elections were not published.

The bench modified its ruling in para 4.4 of its February 13, 2020 judgment, which said that the candidates’ criminal antecedents must be published within 48 hours of their selection or at least 2 weeks before the first date of nomination filing. The has now omitted the latter condition and the parties are now required to publish the candidates’ criminal antecedents within 48 hours of their selection. 

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“This Court, time and again, has appealed to the law-makers of the Country to rise to the occasion and take steps for bringing out necessary amendments so that the involvement of persons with criminal antecedents in polity is prohibited. All these appeals have fallen on the deaf ears. The political parties refuse to wake up from deep slumber.”, the bench observed. 

The bench also directed the Election Commission of India, to make a dedicated mobile application containing information published by candidates regarding their criminal antecedents, and to organise an extensive awareness campaign to bring awareness among the voter about their right to know and the availability of information on candidates’ criminal antecedents.

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"We can only appeal to the conscience of the law-makers and hope that they will wake up soon and carry out a major surgery for weeding out the malignancy of criminalisation in politics.”, the bench observed.

CLICK HERE TO READ JUDGMENT.

*Divisha Srivastava is a 1st year student pursuing B.B.A.LL.B from S.N.D.T School of Law, Mumbai, Maharashtra.