Criminals in legislatures

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refrained from debarring politicians facing serious criminal charges from contesting polls. Admitting that the PIL before it was beyond the judicial realm, the court, however, recognised that there was ‘national thinking’ to clean up politics and hoped that the legislature would meet the challenge by enacting relevant laws. The court also exhorted political parties to advertise criminal antecedents of candidates, accentuating that the problem can no longer be ignored. The civil society has for long now clamoured for the holistic purging of the electoral process. Rightly so. Over one-third of the present Lok Sabha has criminal record.

The most logical step to prevent this would be to ban candidates with a criminal past or record from contesting. But this is a slippery area, considering the truth of the politics of vendetta that is often played out against rivals. Motivated cases, too, can be registered randomly for even espousing a persuasive cause, and fighting for it, which could attract serious Sections of the IPC, from rioting to conspiracy to attempt to murder. The petition wanted the court to bar all candidates who had chargesheets filed against them. This too is a grey territory because a chargesheet is just the police’s version and is yet to be contested in court.   

The Bench has offered some sound pointers, which the political parties and the Election Commission need to heed. The momentum must not slacken. ‘Society has a right to be governed by better people,’ was the Bench’s pertinent observation. The matter rests heavy upon the wisdom of the wise ones in Parliament. Will they, will they not, is what concerns the voter now. He is, after all, the one who shall have the last word. However, the problem of interminable trials will continue to persist. And since barring them at the chargesheet stage should not be an option, fast-track courts, some of which have already started operations against 3,045 legislators facing criminal trial, appears to be a more appropriate avenue.