The SC on Tuesday imposed a fine on several political parties, including the BJP and the Congress, for failing to comply with its earlier order on publishing information about candidates with criminal records.
The top court has fined CPM and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) a sum of Rs 5 lakh for not following its order in the 2020 Bihar elections.
Other parties such as Congress, BJP, Communist Party of India, JD(U), RJD and LJP have been fined Rs 1 lakh each.
The court’s verdict said 51 per cent of the winning candidates in Bihar have serious criminal cases against them like murder, kidnapping and rape. It did acknowledge the possibility of rivals implicating someone falsely as vendetta.
“Despite repeated appeals, political parties refuse to wake up from deep slumber,” said the Supreme Court. “Political lawmakers will wake up soon and carry out major surgery for weeding out the malignancy of criminalisation of politics,” the court noted in its order.
The Supreme Court’s appeals had “fallen on deaf ears”, said Justices RF Nariman and BR Gavi. “Though we want to do something urgently, our hands are tied, we can’t encroach the domain of legislature,” they remarked.
With the aim to stop the state governments from misusing their powers, the apex court also said that the State governments will no longer be able to arbitrarily withdraw pending criminal cases against current or former public representatives without approval from High Courts.
In the case pending since 2016, the court had sought details of all pending cases from the central and state governments. The court has also asked the central government to release funds for setting up special MP/MLA courts in each state.
The orders came while the Supreme Court was hearing petitions seeking suspension of symbol of political parties that do not disclose the criminal backgrounds of their candidates.
In the previous order in February 2020, the SC had said that details to be published by political parties within 48 hours of the selection of the candidate or not less than two weeks before the first date of filing of nominations, whichever earlier.
On Tuesday, the bench said that it has changed this direction and made it mandatory publication within 48 hours, and also passed certain additional directions, which will be known when the full copy of the judgment is uploaded on the top court’s website.
(With inputs from ANI)
