India is a democratic country; even individuals with criminal backgrounds can run the elections. Irrespective of the houses of representatives, the majority of the members have a criminal history and cases pending against them which is not a good sign. Many petitions were filed in the Supreme Court in this regard in the past.
Yet again, a sensational petition which seeks directives to keep the individuals out of electoral politics was filed in the Supreme Court. The petition was filed by BJP Leader-lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay who is often dubbed as the king of PILs given the crucial topics he covers in his petitions.
The Supreme Court accepted the petition and asked the Union government to give its response on keeping individuals with criminal history away from elections. The Apex Court asked the top Election body Election Commission of India (ECI) to give its response.
Besides the Union government and Election Commission of India, notices were also served to the Ministry of Law and Justice and Ministry of Home Affairs seeking a response to the petition. It is interesting to know what the responses will be from them on the plea.
Almost every party in the nation has candidates with a criminal background. The chances of the political parties saying yes to the proposal are very less.
Based on the response given by the Union government and other bodies, the Supreme Court will issues orders. Earlier, the Supreme Court said that it is the Parliament that has to take a call on keeping individuals with criminal backgrounds out of the elections. Now the same Apex Court sought responses from the government and others in this regard.
What made the Supreme Court entertain the petition is the details mentioned by the petitioner on how the count of individuals with criminal backgrounds increased over the past decade. In the petition, the petitioner said that the percentage of Parliamentarians with Criminal backgrounds increased by more than 40 percent compared to 2009.
Listing the crimes, the BJP leader said that, the cases range from rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women, and others. More than 20 percent of MPs in the country are facing serious crimes as per the petition.
