Validating Election Law 2013: a Bad Precedent
| DOI | 10.1093/slr/hmu020 |
| Date | 15 May 2014 |
| Pages | 133-138 |
| Year | 2014 |
| Published By | Oxford University Press |
Statute Law Review, 2014, Vol. 35, No. 2, 133–138
doi:10.1093/slr/hmu020
Advance Access publication May 15, 2014
© e Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@
oup.com.
• 133
Validating Election Law 2013: ABad
Precedent
MESHWAR N.CHATURVEDI*
Elections are a cornerstone of democracy and the Parliament is the pillar of dignity for
the democracy. e dignity of democracy can remain safe only if the dignity of Parliament
itself remains intact. Aperson facing a criminal trial may stand for election and even get
elected. No law prohibits it. e law disqualies only convicts from standing for election.
Aperson facing a criminal trial is only required under the law to furnish particulars of
criminal cases pending in the court at the time of ling nomination for election so that a
voter may have knowledge of the antecedents of the candidates in the fray.1 However, this
requirement has limited impact. In a study on the criminal background of the legislators,
an analysis was carried out by Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election
Watch which reported that 162 out of 543 Members of Parliament of 15th (present) Lok
Sabha (House of the People) have pending criminal cases against them.2
Conduct of a criminal trial takes long years3 and till then a person facing criminal
prosecution is eligible to contest an election from outside the jail and inside the jail.
But a prisoner has no right to vote. In the year 2004, the Patna High Court directed the
Election Commission of India (hereinaer referred to as the Election Commission) to
consider countermanding elections to constituencies where prisoners, whose voting
right had been suspended under the election laws, had entered the fray. In the view
* Advocate, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi, India.
1 Rule 4A of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, prescribes that each candidate must le an adavit (Form 26 appended to
Conduct of Election Rules, 1961)regarding (i) cases, if any, in which the candidate has been accused of any oence punishable
with imprisonment for two years or more in a pending case in which charges have been framed by the court, and (ii) cases of
conviction for an oence other than any of the oences mentioned in section 8 of Representation of the People Act, 1951, and
sentenced to imprisonment for one year or more.
In addition to this, pursuant to the order of the Supreme Court the Election Commission on 27 March 2003 has issued an
order that candidates must le an additional adavit stating (i) information relating to all pending cases in which cogni-
zance has been taken by a Court, (ii) assets and liabilities, and (iii) educational qualications. e adavit is given in a form
prescribed by the Election Commission of India. circular dated 24 August 2012 available at HYPERLINK “hp://eci.
nic.in/eci/eci.html/accessed%20on%2021st%20March%202014”hp://eci.nic.in/eci/eci.html/accessed on 21st March
2014
2 hp://adrindia.org/our-work/election-watch/ (28 February 2014)
3 Report No.239 of the Law commission of India on Expeditious Investigation and Trial of Criminal Cases Against Inuential
Public Personalities − March 2012 at para 2.4 Causes for delay in the progress of Criminal cases in trial Courts available at
lawcommissionondia.nic.in/reports/reports216onwards.htm (21 March 2014).
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