E-Paper
Centre, State given 4 weeks to reply
THE ALLAHABAD High Court on Thursday directed the Central Government, the State Government, the Election Commission of India and the chief electoral officer to file their replies within four weeks on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition asking the respondents to furnish full details of the criminal cases pending against the elected members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council of Uttar Pradesh and their status.
THE ALLAHABAD High Court on Thursday directed the Central Government, the State Government, the Election Commission of India and the chief electoral officer to file their replies within four weeks on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition asking the respondents to furnish full details of the criminal cases pending against the elected members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council of Uttar Pradesh and their status.
The PIL also requested the court to give a direction for speedy and expeditious disposal of criminal cases against the elected members pending before the subordinate courts, preferably by the Fast Track Courts.
This order was passed by a Division Bench, comprising Justice Dr BS Chauhan and Justice Dilip Gupta, on a PIL filed by Om Dutt Singh, head of the Department of Electronics, IERT, Allahabad, through his counsels KK Roy and Prem Prakash Singh.
According to the PIL, the Vohra Committee constituted by Parliament, submitted a report regarding criminalisation of politics and a close nexus between the criminals and the politicians.
Earlier, the Supreme Court in its judgment in the Union of India Vs ADR case had directed the Election Commission to call for information on the affidavit regarding criminal antecedents, property and educational qualifications of the candidates.
However, according to the PIL, the Lok Sewak Sangh published a bulletin containing therein that 100 elected members of Lok Sabha had deliberately concealed their criminal cases pending against them.
Out of these 100 Lok Sabha members, 20 represent various Lok Sabha constituencies of Uttar Pradesh.
The petitioner said that he had sent a detailed letter to the office of the Chief Election Commissioner requesting him to furnish the detailed list of the members of the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, MLAs and MLCs from Uttar Pradesh against whom criminal cases were pending.
The petitioner said that every citizen had the right to know about the financial and educational background of the candidates contesting the elections to Parliament and State Assemblies.
