The Supreme Court has agreed to schedule a PIL hearing on Thursday regarding political parties offering freebies during elections, a crucial move preceding the general elections starting April 19. The PIL requests the court to direct the Election Commission to utilize its authority to freeze election symbols and revoke the registration of parties engaged in this practice.
“This is important. We will keep this on board tomorrow,” the bench, comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said on Wednesday.
The apex court took note of the submissions of senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, appearing for lawyer and PIL petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay, that the plea needs to be heard before the Lok Sabha polls.
The plea said there should be a total ban on populist measures to gain undue political favour from voters as they violate the Constitution, and the EC should take suitable deterrent measures.
It also urged the court to declare that the promise of irrational freebies from public funds before elections unduly influences the voters, disturbs the level playing field and vitiates the purity of the poll process.“This unethical practice is just like giving bribes to the electorate at the cost of the exchequer to stay in power and must be avoided to preserve democratic principles and practices,” it said.
The petition sought a direction to the EC to insert an additional condition in the relevant paragraphs of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968, which deals with conditions for recognition as a state party, that a “political party shall not promise/distribute irrational freebies from the public fund before the election”.
The petitioner has urged the Supreme Court to declare pre-election distribution of private goods from public funds unconstitutional under Article 14. There are eight recognised national political parties and 56 state-level recognised parties. The total number of registered unrecognised political parties in the country is around 2,800.
The seven-phase elections for the LS polls commence on April 19 and conclude on June 1, with vote counting scheduled for June 4. Nomination process for the first phase, covering 102 parliamentary seats across 21 states and union territories, began on Wednesday.