All political parties must publish candidate’s criminal records within 48 hours: Supreme Court

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• Aug 11, 2021 | moderator

New Delhi: In an order, the Supreme Court commands all the political parties to publish the candidate’s criminal records within 48 hours of their selection.

A bench of justices RF Nariman and BR Gavai modified February 13, 2020, paragraph 4.4 judgment and fixed the deadline of 48 hours.

In its February judgment linked to the Bihar Assembly election, the apex court orders the candidates to upload details within 48 hours after their selections or at least two weeks before the first date for filing the nomination.

The apex court made it mandatory for all the political parties to upload their details on their website and publish them in two newspapers. Additionally, the report will have to be submitted to the Election Commission of India within 72 hours after selecting the candidate.

Supreme Court stated, “There is an alarming increase of criminals in politics. In 2004, 24 percent of MPs had pending criminal cases against them; in 2009, it was 30 percent; in 2014, it was 34 percent, and in 2019 it increases to 43 percent of MPs having pending criminal cases against them.”

Notably, both the BJP and Congress accepted it, asserting it would help to deal with politics’ criminalization.