Bihar Elections : Supreme Court Issues Notice To CEC, Political Parties In Contempt Plea Over Alleged Failure To Publish Criminal Antecedents

The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Chief Election Commissioner and leaders of prominent political parties in a contempt petition filed for alleged failure to publish the criminal antecedents of candidates in the Bihar Assembly elections held in November 2020.

A bench comprising Justices R F Nariman, Hemant Gupta and BR Gavai issued notice in the contempt petition filed by Brajesh Singh to Sunil Arora, Chief Electoral Officer for Bihar, H.R. Srinivas, JDU general secretary, K.C. Tyagi, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Bihar president, Jagdanand Singh, Lok Jan Shakti Party leader, Abdul Khalik, Congress party leader R.S. Surjewala and B.L. Santosh of the BJP.

The Court has dispensed with the personal presence of the alleged contemnors on the next date of hearing, March 9.  It has also allowed petitioner petitioner-advocate Brajesh Singh to argue his case in person. 

The petition states that even though the Top Court had stated that the political party must describe the reasons as to why a person with criminal antecedents was selected with reference to the qualifications, achievements and merit and not mere winnability, some parties had given the reason of "popularity" and "probability of winning" for choosing persons with criminal background.

Singh has said 164 of the 353 candidates who contested the first phase for 71 seats have "tainted image". Some of them have criminal cases ranging from murder to rape to kidnapping. He said the RJD tops the list followed by the BJP and the other parties.

The plea states,

"That the aforesaid contemptuous act of the contemners herein will drastically affect the crores of votes including the petitioners close relative votes who would not be able to form his/her sound opinion due to not able to get this information in the reasonable timing before the election"

In this context, the plea seeks contempt proceedings against the alleged contemners for wilfully and deliberately disobeying the directions passed by Supreme Court in the order of February 13, 2020 and pass direction to the political parties for giving cogent reasons, "specifically in the case where the convicted henchmans' blood relatives are contesting election as proxy, in these situations, the concerned political parties must be compelled to put the information in public domain regarding blood relation with the so called henchman's who are ensuring their victories while sitting behind such candidates".

Click here to read/download the order