The Supreme Court has agreed to examine a proposition made by the Election Commission (EC) to ask political parties to not give a ticket to those with criminal antecedents.

Cleansing of Political Parties

• The judgment had urged Parliament to bring a “strong law” to cleanse political parties of leaders facing trial for serious crimes.
• The ruling concluded that rapid criminalisation of politics cannot be arrested by merely disqualifying tainted legislators but should begin by “cleansing” the political parties.
• The court had suggested that Parliament frame a law that makes it obligatory for political parties to remove leaders charged with “heinous and grievous” crimes like rape, murder and kidnapping, only to a name a few, and refuse ticket to offenders in both parliamentary and Assembly polls.
• It had also issued guidelines, including that both the candidate and the political party should declare the criminal antecedents of the former in widely-circulated newspapers.

Why such move?

• 46% of Members of Parliament have criminal records.
• A move to steer politics away from the denizens of the criminal world would definitely serve national and public interest.
• The EC had tried several measures to curb criminalisation of politics but failed.

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