The nation continues to wait and is losing patience, said the Supreme Court on Tuesday as it made an “appeal to the conscience of the lawmakers hoping that they will wake up soon and carry out a major surgery for weeding out the malignancy of criminalisation in politics,” which, it added, was “growing day by day.”
Expressing anguish over the non-compliance by various political parties with its 2020 judgment on the disclosure of criminal antecedents of candidates being put up by them, the top court lamented that its exhortations for amending laws to prohibit involvement of persons with criminal antecedents “have fallen on the deaf ears”.
“The political parties refuse to wake up from deep slumber... Cleansing the polluted stream of politics is obviously not one of the immediate pressing concerns of the legislative branch of government,” said the bench of justices Rohinton F Nariman and BR Gavai, maintaining that the court’s hands are tied due to constitutional scheme of separation of powers that entitles only parliament to make laws and the courts cannot legislate.
The court’s remarks came as it held the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress, among others, guilty of contempt for not complying with its directions regarding complete disclosure of criminal antecedents of candidates put up by them during the Bihar assembly elections in 2020, and imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh on each.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Nationalist Congress Party were asked to cough up ₹5 lakh each for not following the court’s directions “at all”.
{{/usCountry}}The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Nationalist Congress Party were asked to cough up ₹5 lakh each for not following the court’s directions “at all”.
{{/usCountry}}The bench said that the political parties, which also included Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Communist Party of India, shall deposit the money in a fund that will be created by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for an “extensive awareness campaign to make every voter aware about his right to know and the availability of information regarding criminal antecedents of all contesting candidates”.
It directed ECI to create a dedicated mobile application containing information about criminal antecedents of the candidates so as to enable voters access such information conveniently.
The apex poll body, ordered the bench, shall also create a separate cell to monitor compliance by political parties with the court’s directions issued in February 2020 regarding disclosure of criminal backgrounds of their candidates, and bring all instances of breach to the court’s attention.
The top court, which earlier directed political parties to put out information about the cases pending against their candidates on their websites, further ordered that the parties will now create a new caption -- “candidates with criminal antecedents” on the home page of their websites to make it easier for the voter to get to the information.
The court also modified its 2020 direction, in which it obligated the parties to publish the details within 48 hours of the selection of the candidate or not less than two weeks before the first date for filing of nominations, whichever was earlier. It acknowledged the ground reality that in most of the cases the candidates are finalised by the political parties between the period commencing from the date of notification till the last date of withdrawal, saying the details can be published by the parties within 48 hours of the selection of the candidate, and not prior to two weeks before the first date of filing of nominations
The bench was hearing a contempt petition filed by advocate Brajesh Singh, who alleged wilful disobedience of court orders by various political parties during the Bihar assembly elections in 2020.
Singh’s petition cited a Supreme Court judgment in February 2020 that made it mandatory for all political parties to put up on their websites and publish in two newspapers information regarding the pending criminal cases against candidates being fielded by them, and the reasons for selecting them. Singh contended that several parties failed to put in public domain the details of criminal antecedents of their candidates, apart from just citing their winnability as the factor for picking them.
As per the information submitted by Bihar chief electoral officer’s counsel Siddhartha Prasad, there were 427 candidates with criminal antecedents who contested the assembly elections in Bihar in 2020. The RJD topped the list with 104 tainted candidates, followed by the BJP, which fielded 77 such candidates.
Assisted by senior advocate KV Viswanathan as amicus curiae (friend of the court), the bench noted that most of the political parties have either not given full disclosure, or have not followed the format in which the information was to be given.
It said that the political parties are in contempt of the court’s February 2020 judgment, but a lenient view is being adopted and they were let off with a fine because these were the first elections conducted after issuance of the directions. “However, we warn them that they should be cautious in future and ensure that the directions issued by this Court as well as the ECI are followed in letter and spirit,” added the bench.
Viswanathan and ECI’s counsel, senior advocate Vikas Singh, had urged the court to issue certain directions regarding withdrawal of election symbols from the parties for flouting the court’s directions and disqualifying those with serious criminal charges. The bench, however, expressed its inability to pass such orders, clarifying these subjects were within the remit of the legislature and the laws will have to be amended to include such disqualifications.