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Publish criminal history of candidates, SC orders parties
Why in news?
- SC recently ordered political parties to publish the entire criminal history of their candidates for the Assembly & Lok Sabha elections along with the reasons that goaded them to field suspected criminals over decent people.
More in news
- Other Directive of the SC:
(1) Details of Candidates:
(a) The information should be published in a local and a national newspaper as well as the parties’ social media handles.
(b) The published information on the criminal antecedents of a candidate should be detailed and include the nature of the offences, charges framed against him, the court concerned and the case number.
(c) A political party should explain to the public through its published material how the “qualifications or achievements or merit” of a candidate, charged with a crime, impressed it enough to cast aside the smear of his criminal background.
(2) When should it be published: It should mandatorily be published either within 48 hours of the selection of candidates or less than two weeks before the first date for filing of nominations, whichever is earlier.
(3) Compliance Reports to ECI: Political parties should submit compliance reports with the Election Commission of India within 72 hours or risk contempt of court action.
(4) Applicability of Judgement: The judgment is applicable to parties both at the Central and State levels.
- The judgment by the Bench, signified the court’s alarm at the unimpeded rise of criminals, often facing heinous charges like rape and murder, encroaching into the country’s political and electoral realms.
- Alarming increase in the incidence of criminals in politics in last 4 General Elections:
(1) In 2004, 24% of the Members of Parliament had criminal cases pending against them; in 2009, that went up to 30%; in 2014 to 34%; and in 2019 as many as 43% of MPs had criminal cases pending against them.
Sources
The Hindu