THE ELECTION COMMISSION TO CREATE A MOBILE APPLICATION CONTAINING INFORMATION ON POLITICAL CANDIDATES WITH CRIMINAL ANTECEDENTS

The top Court issued various directions while hearing a contempt petition that alleged that political parties during the Bihar Assembly Elections did not comply with the Court's earlier directions passed on 13th February 2020. The Court expressed its disappointment over the failure of several political parties to disclose the criminal antecedents of its candidates for the Bihar Assembly Elections in derogation with the orders passed by the court last year 2020.

The Bench of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and BR Gavai issued the following directions:

1. The top directed the election commission to create a mobile application containing information of political candidates with criminal antecedents so that every voter gets such information on their phone. 

2. The Supreme Court also issued directions to political parties to upload information of its candidates with a criminal background on the homepage of the party's website.

3. The bench directed ECI to carry out an awareness campaign and make people aware of their rights and the availability of information regarding the criminal background of candidates. And this shall be done on various platforms, including websites, social media, tv ads, pamphlets, ext. 

4. The bench further directed ECI to create a fund within 4 weeks into which contempt of court fines shall be paid. 

5. Lastly, ECI has been directed to create a cell to monitor the non-compliance by the political parties so that the court can be promptly apprised about the nom compliance. 

The Bench further fined Rs 1 lakh for partial non-compliance to BJP, Janta Dal Party, CPI, Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Lok Janshakti Party. Whereas CPI and NCP were found to be total non-compliance and hence fined 5 lakh. 

Author: Papiha Ghoshal