EC bats for disbarring chargesheeted politicos
25 Nov 2013 6:06 AM IST
The commission has said that the disqualification of candidates against whom a court has framed charges would serve larger public interest. It, however, added a caveat that only those cases in which charges were framed at least six months before the election should be considered for disqualification. This is a precautionary measure to avoid any poll-time persecution.
The poll panel filed affidavit in the apex court in response to a public interest litigation by the NGO Public Interest Foundation (PIF) seeking elimination of the criminality from politics and barring them from contesting elections.
‘(After the framing of charges), the integrity and character of the accused is under scrutiny and he ceases to have the requisite excellence and integrity to be considered as a candidate for high public office’, the poll panel said in its affidavit.
The commission said that the framing of charges against an accused is done only after the allegations and evidences undergo judicial scrutiny and the court finds that a prima facie case exists.
Earlier, the apex court had asked the poll panel to file its response within a month after the central government argued that the issue raised in the petition was policy matter and came under the exclusive jurisdiction of the legislature.
The Supreme Court this year has passed various verdicts on electoral reforms, which include its verdict on disqualification of lawmakers from the date of conviction; striking down a provision that gave them protection from being disqualified after being convicted by a court; and direction to the commission to provide none-of-the-above (NOTA) option to electors.
The petition said that the election reforms are an agenda which the executive and the legislature are most reluctant to undertake because of obvious bias and needs. It says that decriminalisation of politics is the most important and urgent requirement and yet the legislators have for one frivolous reason or the other rejected it.
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