In a bid to end the criminalisation of politics, the Supreme Court on Tuesday urged a five-judge Constitution Bench to rule on a key question: whether a person facing a criminal case in a heinous crime can be disqualified from fighting Assembly or Parliament polls after a chargesheet is filed or charges framed, or only after conviction.
A three-judge bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Arun Mishra and Prafulla C. Pant referred the question of “whether disqualification for membership can be laid down by the court beyond Article 102(a) to (d) in the Constitution and the law made by Parliament” to Chief Justice T.S. Thakur for placing before a five-judge Constitution Bench.
This issue was raised in a 2011 PIL by Public Interest Foundation, seeking a direction to debar chargesheeted persons from contesting elections. It was also referred to the Law Commission.
The commission, in its report, said “disqualification upon conviction has proved incapable of curbing the growing criminalisation of politics, owing to long delays in trials and rare convictions”. It said: “The law needs to evolve to pose an effective deterrence.”
