Supreme Court Pulls up Centre For Not Giving Details of MLAs and MPs Having Criminal Records
The Apex Court has asked the Centre to file its detailed response by September 5 in the case, when it would take up the matter for hearing.
New Delhi, August 30: The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up the Central Government for not furnishing the details before it of MLAs and MPs who have criminal records against them. The Apex Court has asked the Centre to file its detailed response by September 5 in the case, when it would take up the matter for hearing. According to reports, a petition had been moved in SC seeking its direction to establish special courts to expeditiously try criminal cases registered against MPs & MLAs.
In a bid to curb criminalisation of politics in the country, the Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the petition demanding that election candidates against whom criminal cases have been initiated be banned from the beginning. Earlier this week, Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, lauded the intention of the top court to cleanse the political system but put a caveat saying judiciary cannot venture into the lawmaking territory.
According to a report by PTI, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra reserved the judgement after the parties including the Election Commission and the Central government concluded their arguments on the clutch of petitions.
Earlier, the Apex Court had dubbed criminalisation of politics as "rot” and said it may consider directing the Election Commission to ask political parties to get their members to disclose criminal cases against them. The Court had said that this would help electors know how many "alleged crooks" are there in such parties.
The court was hearing petitions filed by various parties including NGO 'Public Interest Foundation', which exhorted the court to venture into the area of barring a person or a lawmaker from entering into electoral politics after framing charges against them in criminal cases.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 30, 2018 12:35 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).