The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to intervene on a plea to debar candidates facing criminal charges from contesting
elections, preferring to leave it to Parliament to enact suitable laws to “cure the malignancy” and stop such people from entering politics.
The five-judge constitution bench, however, said that if a candidate had a criminal background, it must be given the widest possible publicity, including in the print and electronic media.
The directive came as the bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices R.F. Nariman, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra dealt with a batch of petitions filed by two NGOs and an advocate.
The Public Interest Foundation and the Bharatiya Matdata Sangathan and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay had wanted all candidates facing criminal charges, but not convicted, to be barred from contesting any elections in the country.
The petitioners had submitted statistics to say that nearly 34 per cent of parliamentarians at present faced serious criminal charges.
The Centre, through attorney-general K.K. Venugopal, had urged the top court not to pass any directives for disqualifying such candidates, saying the matter fell within Parliament’s domain and a person was deemed innocent till proved guilty.