Should netas with criminal records be allowed to contest elections? Supreme Court dismisses PIL, tells petitioner to approach EC

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a direction to the Election Commission to not allow any member of a political party with criminal antecedent to contest elections. However, the bench, led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, asked the petitioner, BJP spokesperson and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, to approach the Election Commission with his plea, reported LiveLaw.

SC dismissed Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay’s PIL seeking direction to Election Commission not allow any member of a political party who has criminal antecedent to contest election. CJI led bench,however, asks petitioner to approach the Election Commission of India @LiveLawIndia

— Prabhati Nayak Mishra (@Prabhati_Mishra) January 21, 2019

In his petition, Upadhyay had also asked the Supreme Court to ensure that parties do not field history-sheeters as candidates during elections and issue directions on the same, reported Times Now. On 25 September, 2018, the Supreme Court had held that each candidate must declare his or her criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting any polls. It had asked Parliament to ensure that criminals do not come into politics. “There is no bar on criminal antecedents of political leaders. It’s up to Parliament to make laws,” a bench headed by then chief justice Dipak Misra had said after hearing the petition seeking to disqualify chargesheeted candidates from contesting polls. In the unanimous verdict, the bench, also comprising justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, had said political parties are obligated to share all information about their candidates on their websites. A chargesheet does not debar a person from contesting elections, and cases usually take years to be decided. As a tentative measure, on 1 November, 2017, the Supreme Court had directed the Centre to set up special fast-track courts to try the more than 1,581 cases pending against legislators.