NEW DELHI: The following is the chronology of events leading up to the
Supreme Court on Tuesday holding that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting polls, and termed as "unsettling" the criminalisation of politics in the world's largest democracy.
*Mar 8, 2016: Three-judge bench of SC refers the matter to a five-judge Constitution bench comprising CJI
Dipak Misra and Justices R F
Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y
Chandrachud and
Indu Malhotra.
*Dec 14, 2017: SC directs the Centre to set up 12 special courts to exclusively deal with cases involving politicians.
*Mar 11, 2018: The Centre tells SC that states and Union Territories have been asked to set up special fast-track courts to try 3,816 criminal cases pending against 1,765 lawmakers.
*Mar 21: The Centre tells SC that political parties appointing office-bearers are part of their autonomy.
*Aug 3: Congress leader Jitendra Patwari moves SC opposing the mandatory transfer of all types of pending criminal cases against lawmakers to fast track courts set up exclusively to deal with cases involving MPs and MLAs.
*Aug 9: AG K K Venugopal says the issue squarely fell under the domain of Parliament.
*Aug 21: SC dubs criminalisation of politics as "rot".
*Aug 28: SC reserves verdict.
*Sep 25: Terming as "unsettling" the criminalisation of politics in the world's largest democracy, SC asks Parliament to formulate a law to curb the menace.
