SC fines 8 political parties over criminal candidates

The Supreme Court on Tuesday imposed hefty fines on eight political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, for not disclosing the details of criminal cases against their candidates. The eight political parties were held guilty of failing to comply with the Court's earlier directions on making criminal antecedents of election candidates public, during Bihar polls. The top court in its judgment today slapped a fine of Rs 1 Lakh each on BJP, Congress, JDU, RJD, LJP and CPI and Rs 5 Lakh on NCP and CPM.

While reading out the verdict, the Supreme court noted that despite repeated appeals, political parties refuse to wake up from "deep slumber".  For the future, the Supreme Court directed that political parties should put the criminal records of candidates on their website. The Election Commission should make an app, where voters can see such information. Along with this, the party should publish the criminal record in the media within 48 hours of selecting the candidate. In case of non-compliance of the order, the commission should inform the Supreme Court. 

With the aim to stop the state governments from misusing their powers, the apex court also said that the State governments will no longer be able to arbitrarily withdraw pending criminal cases against current or former public representatives without approval from High Courts. Records of criminal cases have to be made public by parties within 48 hours of the candidate's selection, the Supreme Court said in a big step towards decriminalising politics. The Supreme Court's appeals had "fallen on deaf ears", said Justices RF Nariman and BR Gavi. "Though we want to do something urgently, our hands are tied, we can't encroach the domain of legislature," they remarked.

 The orders came while the Supreme Court was hearing petitions seeking suspension of symbol of political parties that do not disclose the criminal backgrounds of their candidates. In the case pending since 2016, the court had sought details of all pending cases from the central and state governments. The court has also asked the central government to release funds for setting up special MP/MLA courts in each state.