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On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court refused to entertain a PIL that sought directions to the Election Commission of India for framing guidelines for advertising criminal antecedents of candidates in the election campaign in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment in the case, Public Interest Foundation v. Union of India. The Bench, comprising of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice VK Rao observed that the petitioner, BJP leader and Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, should move the Supreme Court if he feels that the elections were being held in violation of the verdict.
The PIL submitted that the ECI were not taking any effective steps for the implementation of the directions issued by the Constitutional Bench, that made it necessary for the candidates should disclose their criminal antecedents in the election affidavit. The judgment had directed that the details of criminal cases be stated in bold letters in the election affidavit, and should also be uploaded on the official website of the party to which the candidate belongs.
Additionally, the PIL asserted that mere disclosure in the affidavit will not serve the purpose while explaining that in constituencies where millions of voters are involved, this is no longer a feasible option. It is crucial that this information is displayed widely, and onus must be on candidate seeking high Constitutional office to make a clean breast of things.
Therefore, The vacuum that exists is in how the information of the candidate placed in his Section 33-An affidavit is actually communicated to the electorate.
In furtherance to this, he had sought disclosure of criminal antecedents in campaign materials such as boards, banners, etc. He had argued that it cannot be presumed that the electorate in India is deliberately choosing suspected criminals as their legal representatives and that it could only be that the true information regarding their backgrounds was not being made known to the public.
He therefore put forth the following suggestions:
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