On Tuesday, the Supreme Court found eight political parties, including the BJP and the Congress, guilty of contempt for failing to make public the criminal histories of their poll candidates in a significant step toward decriminalization of politics.
For not obeying the ruling in last year’s Bihar assembly elections, the top court fined the National Communist Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI(M)) Rs 5 lakh apiece, and the BJP, Congress, Janata Dal, RJD, CPI, and LJP Rs 1 lakh each.
The move occurred after the bench ordered political parties to public their poll candidates’ criminal histories within 48 hours of their selection. Candidates must either post their data to the public domain within 48 hours of their selection or two weeks before the first day of submitting nomination papers, whichever comes sooner, according to the Supreme Court.
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The Supreme Court amended paragraph 4.4 of its February 2020 ruling, establishing a 48-hour limit for candidates to report their criminal records. The court’s decision came in response to a petition asking for the symbol of political parties that do not reveal the criminal histories of their election candidates to be suspended. The complaints argue that criminal histories of candidates running in the Bihar Assembly elections in November 2020 were not published.
The Supreme Court ruled in February that all political parties must explain why they picked candidates with criminal histories and make the records of candidates and the reasons for their selection public on their websites. It further instructed the parties to make this information public via newspapers.
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The Election Commission had urged parties to disclose the details of poll candidates and their criminal histories in newspapers after the Supreme Court’s ruling. The election authority also promised the Supreme Court that it would suspend the party logo per the rulings. The National Communist Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have apologized to the Supreme Court for not disclosing their candidates’ criminal records during the Bihar assembly elections.
