'Non-disclosure of conviction by candidate renders election void', says SC

New Delhi: The non-disclosure of conviction in a nomination form will lead to the disqualification of an elected candidate, the Supreme Court has said. A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar passed the order on an appeal filed by a former councillor, Poonam, who was unseated from the post as she did not disclose her conviction in a case in the nomination form for the election. Poonam was unseated from the municipal councillor's post in Nagar Parishad, Bhikangaon, Madhya Pradesh. She was convicted in a cheque bounce case and sentenced to imprisonment for one year with a direction to pay compensation. Rejecting the petitioner's plea to save her from disqualification, the bench said, "Once it is found that there has been non-disclosure of a previous conviction by a candidate, it creates an impediment in the free exercise of electoral right by a voter." "A voter is thus deprived of making an informed and advised choice. It would be a case of suppression/non-disclosure by such a candidate, which renders the election void," it said.