NDLI: Public Interest Foundation & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Anr.

Content Provider	Supreme Court of India
e-ISSN	30484839
Language	English
Access Restriction	NDLI
Subject Keyword	Constitution of India: Articles 102 (a) to (d) and (e)
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Law Judgement
Jurisdiction	India
Act(s) Referred	Constitution of India
Case(s) Referred	Referred Case 0 Referred Case 1 Referred Case 2 Referred Case 3 Referred Case 4 Referred Case 5 Referred Case 6 Referred Case 7 Referred Case 8 Referred Case 9
Case Type	Writ Petition
Court	Supreme Court of India
Disposal Nature	Others
Headnote	Articles 102 (a) to (d) and (e); 324 – In order to curbcriminalization of politics, whether the court can issue mandamusto Parliament to pass a legislation debarring a person facingcharges of serious nature from contesting election for Member ofParliament; and whether directions can be issued to the ElectionCommission to control party discipline of political party by notencouraging candidates with criminal antecedents – Held: In aconstitutional democracy, criminalization of politics is extremelydisastrous – Though criminalization in politics is a bitter truth , theCourt is not competent to make law to curb such menace –Parliament has exclusive legislative power to lay downdisqualification for membership – Art. 201(1) specifies certaingrounds for disqualification – Any other disqualification can beadded by or under any law made by the Parliament – Chapter III ofRepresentation of the People Act deals with disqualification formembership – As per the Act, a person can be disqualified on ‘noother ground’ than under the provisions of Chapter III – Thus,legislature has very clearly enumerated the grounds fordisqualification and the language of s.7(b) of the Act leaves noroom for any new ground to be added or introduced – Art. 324 laysdown the power of the Election Commission to supervise andconduct free and fair election – However, the said power has itslimitations – The Election Commission has to act in conformity withthe law made by the Parliament and it cannot transgress the same –A direction by the Supreme Court to the Election Commission that acandidate in election against whom charges have been framed, cannot be allowed to contest with the reserved symbol for apolitical party is beyond the pale of judicial arm of the State – Suchdirection will amount to adding a new ground for disqualification –Such attempt would be a colourable exercise of judicial power – Itmight lead to an anomalous situation and has the effect potentialityto do something indirectly which is not permissible to do directly –The tainted candidate, even if denied party symbol and contests theelection as independent candidate, the impact would be same –Therefore, such direction to the Election Commission is notconstitutionally permissible – The judicial arm of the State beingladen with the duty of constitutional ethos cannot usurp the power,which it does not have – However, the citizens in a democracycannot be compelled to stand the corruption – Disclosure ofantecedents makes the election fair and the exercise of the right ofvoting by the electorate also gets sanctified – In the presentscenario, information given by the candidates is not widely knownin the constituency and the multitude of voters do not come to knowabout the antecedents – Their right to have information suffers –Directions issued to the effect that complete and wide informationabout the criminal antecedents of the candidates are given –Representation of the People Act, 1951 – ss. 7(b), 8, 8A, 9, 9A, 10and 10A.
Judge	Honble Mr. Justice Dipak Misra
Neutral Citation	2018 INSC 862
Petitioner	Public Interest Foundation & Ors.
Respondent	Union Of India & Anr.
SCR	[2018] 10 S.C.R. 141
Judgement Date	2018-09-25
Case Number	536

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Public Interest Foundation & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Anr.

Please Log-in to view this content

Jaipal & Others Vs. State of Haryana and Others

Arjun Gopal and Ors. Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Swaraj Abhiyan and Anr. Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Iq City Foundation & Anr. Vs. Union of India & Ors.

Avinash Mehrotra Vs. Union of India & Ors.

M.c. Mehta Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Public Interest Committee for Scheduling Specific Areas and Anr. Vs. Union of India & Ors.

M. Manohar Reddy & Anr. Vs. Union of India & Ors.

M.c. Mehta Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Public Interest Foundation & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Anr.

Public Interest Foundation & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Anr.

Please Log-in to view this content

Similar Documents

Jaipal & Others Vs. State of Haryana and Others

Arjun Gopal and Ors. Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Swaraj Abhiyan and Anr. Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Iq City Foundation & Anr. Vs. Union of India & Ors.

Avinash Mehrotra Vs. Union of India & Ors.

M.c. Mehta Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Public Interest Committee for Scheduling Specific Areas and Anr. Vs. Union of India & Ors.

M. Manohar Reddy & Anr. Vs. Union of India & Ors.

M.c. Mehta Vs. Union of India and Ors.

Public Interest Foundation & Ors. Vs. Union of India & Anr.