PUBLIC INTEREST FOUNDATION & ORS. versus UNION OF INDIA & ANR.

Citation: [2018] 10 S.C.R. 141 · Decided: 25-09-2018 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: DIPAK MISRA · Disposal: Disposed off

Cited by 5 judgment(s) · cites 20 · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

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PUBLIC INTEREST FOUNDATION & ORS.
v.
UNION OF INDIA & ANR.
(Writ Petition (Civil) No. 536 of 2011)
SEPTEMBER 25, 2018
[DIPAK MISRA, CJI, R. F. NARIMAN,
A. M.  KHANWILKAR,  DR. D. Y. CHANDRACHUD AND
INDU MALHOTRA, JJ.]
Constitution of India:
Articles 102 (a) to (d) and (e); 324 – In order to curb
criminalization of politics, whether the court can issue mandamus
to Parliament to pass a legislation debarring a person facing
charges of serious nature from contesting election for Member of
Parliament; and whether directions can be issued to the Election
Commission to control party discipline of political party by not
encouraging candidates with criminal antecedents – Held: In a
constitutional democracy, criminalization of politics is extremely
disastrous – Though criminalization in politics is a bitter truth , the
Court is not competent to make law to curb such menace –
Parliament has exclusive legislative power to lay down
disqualification for membership – Art. 201(1) specifies certain
grounds for disqualification – Any other disqualification can be
added by or under any law made by the Parliament – Chapter III of
Representation of the People Act deals with disqualification for
membership – As per the Act, a person can be disqualified on ‘no
other ground’ than under the provisions of Chapter III – Thus,
legislature has very clearly enumerated the grounds for
disqualification and the language of s.7(b) of the Act leaves no
room for any new ground to be added or introduced – Art. 324 lays
down the power of the Election Commission to supervise and
conduct free and fair election – However, the said power has its
limitations – The Election Commission has to act in conformity with
the law made by the Parliament and it cannot transgress the same –
A direction by the Supreme Court to the Election Commission that a
candidate in election against whom charges have been framed,
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2018] 10 S.C.R.
cannot be allowed to contest with the reserved symbol for a
political party is beyond the pale of judicial arm of the State – Such
direction will amount to adding a new ground for disqualification –
Such attempt would be a colourable exercise of judicial power – It
might lead to an anomalous situation and has the effect potentiality
to do something indirectly which is not permissible to do directly –
The tainted candidate, even if denied party symbol and contests the
election as independent candidate, the impact would be same –
Therefore, such direction to the Election Commission is not
constitutionally permissible – The judicial arm of the State being
laden with the duty of constitutional ethos cannot usurp the power,
which it does not have – However, the citizens in a democracy
cannot be compelled to stand the corruption – Disclosure of
antecedents makes the election fair and the exercise of the right of
voting by the electorate also gets sanctified – In the present
scenario, information given by the candidates is not widely known
in the constituency and the multitude of voters do not come to know
about the antecedents – Their right to have information suffers –
Directions issued to the effect that complete and wide information
about the criminal antecedents of the candidates are given –
Representation of the People Act, 1951 – ss. 7(b), 8, 8A, 9, 9A, 10
and 10A.
Disposing of the writ petitions and the appeals, the Court
HELD: 1.1  An essential component of a constitutional
democracy is its ability to give and secure for its citizenry a
representative form of government, elected freely and fairly, and
comprising of a polity whose members are men and women of
high integrity and morality. This could be said to be the hallmark
of any free and fair democracy.  Criminalization of politics was
never an unknown phenomenon in the Indian political system.
[Paras 26 and 28] [167-F; 168-B]
1.2 The Election Commission has also remained alive to
the issue of criminalization of politics since 1998. The
recommendations of the Law Commission for proposed
amendment never saw the light of the day in the form of a law
enacted by a competent legislature but it vividly exhibits the
concern of the society about the progressing trend of
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criminalization in politics that has the proclivity and the
propensity to send shivers down the spine of a constitutional
democracy. [Paras 29 and 59] [169-A; 187-D-E]
Dinesh Trivedi, M.P. and Others v. Union of India a

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