Supreme Court convicts 3 parties on criminalization issue, fines 4

New Delhi, Dt

The apex court on Tuesday took a stern stance on the issue of criminalization in politics and elections, convicting a total of nine parties, including national parties like BJP and Congress, in Bihar for contempt of court and fined eight parties. This drastic action of the Supreme Court in the context of the Bihar elections is an eye-opener for all parties at the state and central level. The Supreme Court has taken this drastic step for not complying with the order to disclose the criminal history of the candidates in the Bihar elections. The Supreme Court has convicted nine political parties, including the BJP and the Congress, of contempt.

The Supreme Court has fined NCP and CPM Rs 5 lakh each while Congress and BJP have been fined Rs 1 lakh each. Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal, Lok Janshakti Party and CPI have also been fined Rs one lakh each. The Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission to deposit the fine within four weeks. At the same time, it has warned that in future it will abide by the orders of the Supreme Court. Otherwise the matter will be taken seriously. The court, on the other hand, has warned the Bahujan Samaj Party to leave.

The Supreme Court made several important remarks in its order to end criminalization in politics. The Supreme Court said the court has repeatedly urged lawmakers to take steps to wake up and prevent criminalization in politics, but political parties have fallen asleep. The Supreme Court said not all their appeals could reach political parties. Political parties are not ready to wake up from their slumber. The hands of the court are bound. This is the job of Parliament. We can only appeal. We hope that political parties will wake up and perform major surgery to stop criminalization in politics.

Along with this, the Supreme Court has also sent some guidelines to prevent criminalization of politics. Political parties will have to publish information about the criminal history of the candidates on the home page of their website and have a caption on the front page that says 'Candidates with a criminal background'. The apex court has also directed the Election Commission to create a dedicated mobile application which will contain information about the criminal history of the candidates.

The Election Commission has also been directed to conduct a comprehensive awareness campaign on the criminal history of all the candidates contesting the elections. The campaign is recommended to run through various platforms including social media, websites, TV commercials, prime time debates, pamphlets etc. The Election Commission forms a cell to monitor whether the political parties have complied with the orders of the Supreme Court. If a political party fails to submit such a compliance report to the Election Commission, the Election Commission will have to inform the Supreme Court.

At the same time, the apex court said that the parties had published information on the criminal history of the candidates in the less widely circulated newspapers while the apex court said that the information on the criminal history of the candidates should be published in the more widely circulated newspapers and electronic media.