Submit criminal records of poll candidates on websites, social media: SC to political parties
By Newsmeter Network Published on 13 Feb 2020 7:11 AM GMT
Hyderabad: The Supreme Court, on 13 February, directed all political parties to submit criminal records of all their candidates in local newspapers, official websites of the parties, and social media handles. The information should also contain the nature of crime and the stage of the trial or investigation.
A Bench comprising Justice R.F Nariman and Ravindra passed the order following petitions filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and Rambabu Singh Thakur. They had complained that the Election Commission had failed to comply with the directions laid down by the Constitution Bench in 2018 regarding the decriminalization of politics.
The court also said that winning an election shouldn't be the sole reason for selecting a candidate with criminal records. The party must publish the reasons for selecting a particular candidate, it said.
According to an ADR report published recently, around 61 per cent of the Delhi MLAs elected in the recent Assembly polls had criminal cases against them.
