Supreme Court leaves decision on criminal netas on parliament

Putting the onus on parliament, the Supreme Court today said, whether lawmakers facing criminal charges be barred from contesting elections or should they be disqualified only after conviction, should be left to the parliament to enact a law.

While reading out the verdict the Chief Justice of India termed corruption as "National Economic Terror". Supreme Court also asked political parties and candidates to publish their criminal records at least three times in newspapers and TV channels after filing of nomination papers in a bid to check rising criminalisation in our democratic system.

A five-judge bench comprising of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justice RF Nariman, AN Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra pronounced the verdict. The bench also said that citizens have a right to be informed about the antecedents of their candidates.


Presently those convicted of heinous crimes like murder, rape and kidnapping are barred from contesting election.

The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of petitions seeking disqualification of lawmakers even before their conviction in criminal cases to curb "criminalisation of politics" in the country.

During the course of the argument, Attorney General KK Venugopal, representing centre referred to the concept of presumption of innocence until a person is proven guilty and derived that depriving a person from contesting elections on a party ticket would amount to denial of the right to vote, which also included the right to contest.

The petitions have been opposed by the centre stating that it was not within the domain of the courts to add new disqualifications, which are not found in the statute.

In March, the union government said in an affidavit to the Supreme Court that a total of 1,765 representatives, including MPs and MLAs, a little over a third of all representatives in India, face criminal charges.

Last year, a two-judge bench of the SC asked the government to set up 12 special courts across 11 states and Delhi to deal with cases related to elected representatives.

Background
In a PIL filed before the apex court in 2011, Public Interest Foundation (PIF), an NGO, had sought disqualification of candidates in electoral fray who have been charge sheeted for serious and heinous offences attracting sentence of five years or more.

The Supreme Court was informed by the Election Commission that it has endorsed the suggestion made in the PIL and a proposal on similar lines have been sent to Ministry of Law & Justice.