Parties have to publish criminal records of poll candidates within 48 hours of selection, rules SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that political parties must publish criminal records of their election candidates within 48 hours of selection, Live Law reported.

The court modified its judgement from February 13 last year, where it had said that the criminal history of election candidates must be made public either within 48 hours of selection or two weeks prior to the first date of filing of nomination papers for an election.

The Supreme Court had added that political parties must publish the records in one regional and one national newspaper and also on Twitter and Facebook, PTI reported.

In November 2020, a lawyer filed a contempt petition before the Supreme Court against the Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and political parties in Bihar for allegedly violating the order to publish the criminal history of candidates who fought the Assembly polls, according to the Hindustan Times.

“Political parties mainly published the criminal antecedents of their candidates on their websites and in some less circulated newspapers and some in a limited manner on social media but nobody got it published in any national newspapers as directed by the apex court,” Brajesh Singh, the petitioner, had said, according to the newspaper.

The court had decided to examine Singh’s petition in February this year, The Hindu reported.

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