Reveal candidates’ past to voters, HC orders EC

The EC has been given four months to work out the modalities of the direction and bring them to effect.

Upholding the citizens’ fundamental right to seek and receive information, the bench said the EC should inform the voters whether the candidate is accused of any offence punishable with imprisonment. In addition, the judgement also said that any facts “giving insight to a candidate’s competence, capacity and suitability for acting as parliamentarian or legislator” including details of their educational qualifications should also be made available.

To ensure that the directions were properly implemented, the bench also directed pre-election debates to be telecast on the national network of Doordarshan, where party representatives could present their manifestoes, programmes and other details of their candidates, before answering questions of the audience.

In addition any information which the EC considers necessary for judging the capacity and capability of the political party fielding the canditate for election should also be made available.

The bench noted that it was open to the EC to issue directives to concerned government bodies to gather all the requisite information and those authorities were then “duty bound” to provide it. The candidate was also bound to submit all the information at the time of filing his or her nomination. “Furnishing of false information in the affidavit will result in prosecution of the candidate,” the order said, adding that the EC could file a case against the candidate in the criminal court is such cases. Non-compliance by any of the government departments to the directions issued by law would also be liable to prosecution.

It is pertinent to mention that a special bench comprising Chief Justice Arijit Pasayat, and Justices DK Jain and Mukul Mudgal dismissed a petition last month seeking minimum qualifications for members of parliament.

The petitioners represented by counsel Kamini Jaiswal had pointed out 46 candidates with criminal backgrounds who had contested in the elections for the 13th Lok Sabha. In an affidavit that the EC had filed in court, they had said that they were “very keen” for certain amendments in the electoral law and had been raising the issue for the past two years. The bench cited from the EC’s publication Electoral Reforms (Views and Proposals) which talks about the criminalisation of politics, and how “law breakers have become law makers”.

The judgement also noted that the government had not been able to table an Electoral Reforms Bill in parliament for lack of consensus amongst the political parties.