Make candidates’ pending criminal case details public: Indian SC to parties

India's Supreme Court today directed all political parties to upload details of pending criminal cases against their candidates contesting elections on their website as well as on social media, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Political parties must also mention why they are selecting candidates with pending criminal cases, the apex court said.

A top court bench, headed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, also directed political parties to publish these details on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and in one local dialect and one national newspaper.

The court passed the orders on a contempt plea which raised the issue of criminalisation of politics claiming that directions given by the apex court in its September 2018 verdict relating to disclosure of criminal antecedents by candidates are not being followed.

The Supreme Court said political parties will have to submit a compliance report in this regard to the Election Commission within 72 hours of selecting candidates with pending criminal cases against them.

It directed the EC to bring it to the notice of the apex court in case of failure of political parties to comply with its directions.

While pronouncing the order, the bench said it appears that there has been an alarming increase in criminalisation of politics in the last four general elections.