No Tickets To Candidates With Criminal Background: EC to SC

The Opposition has backed Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of voter fraud. Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi has said the Election Commission of India’s reaction to Gandhi’s press conference showed "hesitation and unease" and that the ECI failed to provide a direct answer to Gandhi’s pointed questions (Representational Image)

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday told the Supreme Court that its 2018 direction asking poll candidates to declare their criminal antecedents in electronic and print media has not helped curb criminalisation of politics.

The poll panel suggested that instead of asking candidates to declare criminal antecedents in the media, political parties should be asked not to give tickets to candidates with criminal background.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat asked the ECI to come up with a framework within one week which can help curb criminalisation of politics in the nation’s interest.

The top court asked the petitioner – BJP leader and advocate Ashiwini Upadhyay – and the poll panel to sit together and come up with suggestions which would help him in curbing criminalisation of politics.

In September 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench had unanimously held that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting polls and had called for a wider publicity, through print and electronic media about antecedents of candidates.