Candidate’s failure to disclose assets can’t necessarily result into invalidation of election: SC

A candidate’s failure to disclose assets in his affidavit will not make the acceptance of his/her nomination improper leading to invalidating the election, if it does not constitute a material defect and is not of a substantial character, the Supreme Court has ruled.

“We are, thus, of the view that merely because a returned (elected) candidate has not disclosed certain information related to the assets, courts should not rush to invalidate the election by adopting a highly pedantic and fastidious approach, unless it is shown that such concealment or non-disclosure was of such magnitude and substantial nature that it could have influenced the election result,” the top court said.

The significant ruling came from a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N Kotiswar Singh which dismissed an appeal against an October 2024 order of the Telangana High Court which rejected an election petition related to the 2023 legislative assembly polls in Telangana. Noting that the defect of non-disclosure was not of a substantial nature, it upheld the election of returned candidate Kova Laxmi.

Writing the judgment for the Bench, Justice Singh said, “The true test, in our opinion, would be whether the non-disclosure of information about assets in any case is of consequential or inconsequential import, finding of which will be the basis for declaring the election valid or void as the case may be.”

It said, “The court has made a subtle distinction between non-disclosure of criminal antecedents and that of assets and educational qualifications. While disclosure of criminal antecedents in the electoral process was the most critical element to maintain the purity of the electoral process which has to be scrupulously adhered to, disclosure of assets and educational qualifications were considered as attending supplementary requirements to strengthen the electoral process, of which there will be certain scope for consideration as to whether it is of substantial or inconsequential nature.”

The Bench said, “this disclosure requirement as far as assets and educational qualification is concerned, should not be unreasonably stretched to invalidate an otherwise validly declared election over minor technical non-compliances that are not of substantial character, and should not be the basis for nullification of the people’s mandate.”