Supreme Court tells political parties to name and shame criminal lawmakers: Apex court issues five guidelines

The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued some directions to political parties as it left the matter of disqualification of politicians carrying criminal charges against them to the Parliament saying that the court cannot add to the grounds of disqualification. [caption id=“attachment_5087451” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] In view of its verdict, the apex court thought it was appropriate to issue the following directions which are in accord with the decisions of the court: — Each contesting candidate shall fill up the form as provided by the Election Commission and the form must contain all the particulars as required therein. — It shall state, in bold letters, with regard to the criminal cases pending against the candidate. — If a candidate is contesting an election on the ticket of a particular party, he/she is required to inform the party about the criminal cases pending against him/her. — The concerned political party shall be obligated to put up on its website the aforesaid information pertaining to candidates having criminal antecedents. — 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. “When we say wide publicity, we mean that the same shall be done at least thrice after the filing of the nomination papers,” the court said in its judgment. The judgment was pronounced by a Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra and comprising of Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra. Follow LIVE updates on the Supreme Court verdict here: