Picture : Twitter / ANI
Political parties must upload on their websites details of criminal cases against candidates and the reasons for selecting them, the Supreme Court said , flagging an “alarming rise in the criminalization of politics” in the last four national elections.
The Supreme Court said it would be mandatory for parties to upload the details on their websites and on social media within 48 hours.
Parties must submit the details within 72 hours to the Election Commission, the court said. “The reason to select candidates should be based on merit and not winnability,” the top court directed.
Supreme Court further stated that political parties will liable for contempt if they fail to comply with the order. It asks Election Commission of India to file contempt petition in Supreme Court if political parties don’t not comply with the order.
In September 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench had unanimously held that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting polls and called for a wider publicity, through print and electronic media about antecedents of candidates.
It had left it to Parliament to “cure the malignancy” of criminalisation of politics by making a law to ensure that persons facing serious criminal cases do not enter the political arena as the “polluted stream of politics” needs to be cleansed.
During the hearing on the contempt plea, the EC had told the court that increase in number of MPs having pending criminal cases was “disturbing” and as per the statistics, there were 43 per cent MPs in Parliament who have criminal cases against them.
