On February 24, the Supreme Court of India (SC) granted three weeks to the Union Government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file a response to the plea seeking the debarment of charge-sheeted candidates from contesting elections. The said PIL seeks debarment of candidates against whom charges have been framed in any heinous offence by a trial court.
The Petitioner argued that if a charge-sheeted government officer can be suspended or dismissed from service, why can’t the same be applicable to legislators or candidates? He stated, “If a court frame charges against a government employee in a heinous offence, he is either suspended or dismissed from service. But a candidate, unless convicted in a criminal case and sentenced to two or more years of imprisonment, would continue as a minister, parliamentarian or a legislator.”
He added, “A person, who on charges being framed in a heinous offence, cannot become even a peon, but can become a legislator and even a law minister.”
The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna observed, “If we have to survive as a nation, each of us has to have character and values. Look at the menace of corruption. In western countries, the common man is never bogged down by it. Here corruption is there even at the grassroots level. That is the real problem.”
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