Six months after it mandated that poll contenders publicly come clean on their criminal records, the Supreme Court issued contempt notices on Friday to the Election Commission and the Centre for failing to enforce its September 25 decision.

A five-judge Constitution Bench had directed the EC to ensure that criminal antecedents of candidates are mentioned in bold in their nomination forms and are conveyed to the public online or through local newspapers.

With parliamentary polls on the horizon, lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay filed a contempt petition citing non-compliance by EC officers, and Cabinet and Law Secretaries. A bench of Justices RF Nariman and Vineet Saran issued the notice as it was aware of its September 2018 order since Justice Nariman was part of that bench.