PTI, NEW DELHI: Observing criminalisation of politics is a bitter manifest truth and a “termite” to the citadel of democracy, the Supreme Court Tuesday left it to Parliament to bar those facing trial for heinous and grievous offences from contesting elections by enacting a “strong law”.
Declining to put a ban on candidates with criminal antecedents from entering the poll fray, which, it said is the domain of the legislature, the court said the law should also make it mandatory for political parties to revoke the membership of candidates facing serious criminal cases.
The court, however, passed a slew of directions to cleanse the “polluted stream of politics”.
One of the directions was that pending criminal cases have to be stated “in bold letters” in the form provided by the Election Commission. The candidate and the political party concerned were also directed to issue a declaration in widely circulated newspapers in the locality and in electronic media about his or her antecedents.
According to the prevalent law, lawmakers stand immediately disqualified and candidates barred from contesting elections if convicted for a crime and sentenced to a jail term of two years or above under the Representation of Peoples (RP) Act.
Warning that “malignancy” of criminalisation of politics can become “fatal” to democracy, the court said the nation was “eagerly” waiting for legislation as the society has legitimate expectation to be governed by proper constitutional governance and citizens cannot be compelled to stand as “silent, deaf and mute spectators” to corruption by projecting themselves as helpless.
Holding that criminalisation of politics is an “extremely disastrous and lamentable situation”, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra in its unanimous verdict said this “unsettlingly increasing trend” has the propensity to “send shivers down the spine of a constitutional democracy”.
“A time has come that the Parliament must make law to ensure that persons facing serious criminal cases do not enter into the political stream.
