Harish Salve, the Election Commission lawyer, welcomed the suggestion.
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on whether or not the Election Commission can droop political events’ symbols if they don’t disclose the prison historical past of candidates in violation of its 2020 order.
This got here after the CPI(M) and Sharad Pawar’s NCP apologised to the Supreme Court for not following the order throughout the Bihar Assembly elections in 2020. “We don’t buy this sorry, our orders must be followed,” Justice RF Nariman, sitting with Justice BR Gavai, remarked.
KV Viswanathan, Senior Advocate aiding the court docket as Amicus Curiae, steered that Section 16A of RP Act – suspending get together image, is the one deterrent and suspension will be time sure.
“NCP and CPI-M both first time violators must be punished. The court may order publishing apologies in papers by these two parties and a fund to be set up by EC for creating awareness,” he mentioned.
Harish Salve, the Election Commission lawyer, welcomed the suggestion. “EC welcomes the setting up of the fund. If the Supreme Court is imposing a fine let it not be one rupee, so that people do not have photos taken with Re 1 handed over with a smile on their face,” he mentioned, referring to Prashant Bhushan paying Re 1 as advantageous for contempt of court docket.
“The change has to come from the heart of people. What we all want to see is that change should come to the system,” he added.
He mentioned criminalisation of politics has gone up regardless of bringing out prison antecedents of candidates within the public area.
In February 2020, the Supreme Court had requested all political events to elucidate why candidates with prison circumstances have been chosen. It ordered the political events to add particulars of circumstances in opposition to candidates on get together web sites and causes for choosing such candidates.
The Election Commission had additionally directed political events to publish in newspapers data on prison circumstances in opposition to such candidates.
Vikas Singh, senior advocate showing for the Election Commission, instructed the court docket at this time that the Rastriya Janata Dal was the largest defaulter with 103 candidates having prison antecedents and JDU had fielded 56 candidates having prison historical past. He steered suspending the election image in case of violation by a nationwide get together.
