Let Parl decide if charged can contest Polls: Supreme Court

The Apex Court has refused to declare elections of legislators with charge sheets void, even in cases were a conviction would attract a jail term of 5 or more years. Supreme Court said that the subject was essentially in Parliament’s domain. The Court cannot either direct Parliament to frame a law, a bench led by L Nageshwara Rao said on Monday.

Dealing with a petition filed by NGO Lok Prahari which sought elections of charge-sheeted persons as null & void, the bench, however, allowed the petitioner to file a fresh plea seeking to implement the court’s earlier order asking the Govt to crack down on increasing criminalisation of politics.

Appearing for the NGO, its secretary SN Shukla submitted that the Court must intervene under provisions of the Representation of People Act. Shukla said that the percentage of those with criminal records in Delhi & Bihar assemblies had gone up from 20 to 53 & 30 to 51, respectively.

“A law has been pending for over 23 years now due to conflict of interest. This malignancy must be treated as early as possible before it becomes fatal to democracy.” He urged the court to treat a charge-sheeted person on a par with a person accused of non-disclosure of assets & criminal antecedents & declare his election result null & void.

The bench said that the plea went against the Law Commission recommendations that it would rather leave the issue for Parliament to decide. The Law Commission had instead suggested that those whom against whom charges have been framed be prevented from contesting.

There have been repeated demands that those who have been charge sheeted or against whom charges have been framed to be disallowed from contesting elections, with little success. The political class feels that such a law can be manipulated to frame opponents ahead of elections & has been averse to barring them from contesting. At the moment, those convicted for more than 2 years in a criminal case cannot contest elections. 

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