The Supreme Court on Tuesday fined BJP, Congress and 6 other political parties for not disclosing criminal cases of candidates that fought elections during the Bihar Assembly Elections. In its landmark ruling, the Supreme Court came down hard on political parties and said that parties continue to “refuse to wake up from deep slumber”.
Details
The anecdotes of political leaders on the higher rungs of political landscapes having a criminal history behind them is known to any Indian that has bothered to go to a voting booth in the recent history. Yet, political leaders having criminal antecedents is more common than ever. Today, the Supreme Court came down hard on political parties that let leaders with criminal antecedents fight elections.
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How Much Does Each Party Have to Pay in Fine?
As many as 8 political parties were imposed a fine and were given a stern worded ruling by the Supreme Court today. 6 political parties which include the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal United (JDU), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Lok Jan Shakti Party were imposed a fine of Rs. 1 lakh each for non-compliance.
2 parties – Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPI-M) and National Congress Party (NCP) were found in total non-compliance and to which, they were fined Rs. 5 lakh each. The Supreme Court was hearing a matter related to the disclosure of candidates’ criminal backgrounds disclosure on their respective parties’ official websites as well as newspapers and social media during the Bihar Assembly Elections.
“Parties Refuse to Wake Up from Deep Slumber”
During the hearing, the Supreme Court bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice B.R. Gavai ruled-
“Despite repeated appeals, political parties refuse to wake up from deep slumber.”
The court further noted-
“Political lawmakers will wake up soon and carry out major surgery for weeding out the malignancy of criminalisation of politics.”
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Election Commission Directed to Create App
In the same matter, the Supreme Court issued further directives to the political parties to make sure that they upload the details of candidates that have a criminal history on their websites’ homepages. Moreover, the Supreme Court asked the EC (Election Commission) to create a mobile application which will contain all the relevant public information of political leaders regarding their criminal history so that each voter may know who they may be voting for and take decision accordingly.
ECI Directed to Have Awareness Campaigns, Separate Monitoring Cell
Further, the apex court asked the Election Commission of India to hold awareness campaigns to enable voters about their right to information regarding criminal history of all the candidates to contest for elections.
Interestingly enough, the Supreme Court directed ECI to create a fund for the above-mentioned purpose within the next 4 weeks in which fines related contempt of court be paid. This fund will later be used in creating the awareness campaigns. The ECI was directed to create a separate cell which will monitor all the compliances so that the top court can be promptly be alerted about non-compliance.
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“Alarming increase in incidence of criminals in politics”
During the hearing, Justice Nariman observed-
“It appears that over the last four general elections, there has been an alarming increase in the incidence of criminals in politics. In 2004, 24% of the Members of Parliament had criminal cases pending against them; in 2009, that went up to 30%; in 2014 to 34%; and in 2019, as many as 43% of MPs had criminal cases pending against them.”
