New
Delhi:
The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on whether the Election Commission
can suspend political parties' symbols if they do not disclose the criminal
history of candidates in violation of its 2020 order.
This
came after the CPI(M) and Sharad Pawar's NCP apologised to the Supreme Court
for not following the order during 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 assisting the court as Amicus Curiae, suggested
that Section 16A of RP Act - suspending party symbol, is the only deterrent and
suspension can be time bound.
“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 said.
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 said, referring to Prashant Bhushan paying Re 1
as fine for contempt of court.
“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
said criminalisation of politics has gone up despite bringing out criminal
antecedents of candidates in the public domain.
In
February 2020, the Supreme Court had asked all political parties to explain why
candidates with criminal cases were selected. It ordered the political parties
to upload details of cases against candidates on party websites and reasons for
selecting such candidates.
The
Election Commission had also directed political parties to publish in
newspapers information on criminal cases against such candidates.
Vikas
Singh, senior advocate appearing for the Election Commission, told the court
today that the Rastriya Janata Dal was the biggest defaulter with 103
candidates having criminal antecedents and JDU had fielded 56 candidates having
criminal history. He suggested suspending the election symbol in case of
violation by a national party.
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