In a bid to decriminalise politics, the Supreme Court onTuesday held nine major political parties guilty of contempt and fined eight ofthem, including the Congress and the BJP, for not complying with directions inits February 2020 judgment, on making public criminal records of candidatesselected for polls.
A bench of Justices R F Nariman and B R Gavai said:"Though we have held the Respondent No 3 to 9, 11 and 12 guilty of havingcommitted contempt of our order dated February 13, 2020, taking intoconsideration that these were the first elections which were conducted afterissuance of our directions, we are inclined to take a lenient view in thematter."
It warned the parties that they should be cautious infuture and ensure that the directions issued by it as well as the ElectionCommission are followed in letter and spirit. "We direct the RespondentNos 3,4,5,6,7, and 11 to deposit an amount of Rs 1 lakh each in the accountcreated by the ECI as specified in this judgment in paragraph 73(iii) within aperiod of 8 weeks from the date of this judgment," added the bench. TheCongress, BJP and four other parties have been fined Rs 1 lakh each.
The bench added: "Insofar as Respondent Nos 8(Communist Party of India-Marxist) and 9 (Nationalist Congress Party) areconcerned, since they have not at all complied with the directions issued bythis court, we direct them to deposit an amount of Rs 5 lakh each in theaforesaid account within the aforesaid period."
The top court also asked the Election Commission tocreate a mobile app that has the information for voters to access easily."The ECI is directed to create a dedicated mobile application containinginformation published by candidates regarding their criminal antecedents, sothat at one stroke, each voter gets such information on his/her mobilephone," it said.
In another step towards decriminalising politics, the topcourt said the details of the candidates with criminal background should bepublished within 48 hours of their selection. "It is clarified that thedetails which are required to be published, shall be published within 48 hoursof the selection of the candidate and not prior to two weeks before the firstdate of filing of nominations," it added.
The top court delivered the judgment on a petition, whichsought suspending the symbol of political parties, which do not disclose thecriminal backgrounds of their candidates. The petitions asked for contemptagainst political parties for not obeying the court judgment, in the Biharelection, held in November last year.
Last year's ruling had said all political parties shouldexplain why they chose candidates with a criminal background and releasedetails of the cases on their party's website in addition with the reasons forselecting such candidates. The Election Commission had directed politicalparties to publish this information on candidates in newspapers.