NEW DELHI: The SC had wished to ban those accused of serious crimes from contesting elections or put them at a disadvantage by depriving them of their party symbol, but gave up these options to curb criminalisation of politics by saying judiciary could not "usurp powers which it does not have".
A bench of CJI Dipak Misra and Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra had deliberated on two possible options to stop tainted candidates from contesting elections - one, disqualify a person against whom a trial court frames charges in a serious offence and, two, order the Election Commission to deprive a tainted candidate from using the party's poll symbol.
Attorney general K K Venugopal had argued that the first option amounted to both breaching the golden principle as well as entering the legislative domain to provide for disqualification in addition to those prescribed by Parliament in the Representation of the People Act.
The SC was caught in a bind, tasked to find a balance between maintaining purity of governance by curbing criminalisation of politics and the danger of foraying into legislature's domain. While ordering candidates to advertise in media about their criminal antecedents, it refrained from crossing the 'lakshman rekha' into the legislative arena.
Referring to Law Commission's recommendation to the government to frame a law to debar a person from contesting if a court framed charges against her/him in a serious offence, the CJI Misra led bench said, "These recommendations for proposed amendment never saw the light of day in the form of a law enacted by a competent legislature but it vividly exhibits the concern of society about the progressing trend of criminalisation in politics that has the proclivity and the propensity to send shivers down the spine of a constitutional democracy."
