Bihar polls: Supreme Court notice to CEC, others on contempt plea

THE SUPREME Court has issued notice to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and political party leaders on a contempt plea alleging lapses in publication of criminal antecedents of candidates who contested in the Bihar assembly elections last year.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman, Hemant Gupta and B R Gavai issued notice on the plea by Advocate Brajesh Singh, who contended that the respondents were in “wilful disobedience” of the court’s directions in a February 2020 order regarding such publication.

Besides CEC Arora, notices were issued to Chief Electoral Officer for Bihar H R Srinivas, JD(U) leader K C Tyagi, RJD’s Jagdanand Singh, LJP’s Abdul Khalik, Congress’s R S Surjewala and BJP’s B L Santosh.

The order mandated political parties to upload details of criminal cases against candidates fielded in Lok Sabha and Assembly polls on their websites besides a local vernacular newspaper and a national newspaper and social media accounts.