Disqualify candidates with criminal cases: CEC V S Sampath
By PTI | 15 Jan, 2015, 04.39PM IST
ET SPECIAL:
It also wants the growing menace of paid news to be made an electoral offence to provide a level-playing field in elections.
The Commission has made recommendations to the government against candidates facing cases in which charges are framed by courts which could attract a sentence of five years.
Now it is for the government to bring legislative amendments to the electoral law to achieve these objectives, says Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath.
"This is one of the long-pending demands of the Election Commission in electoral reforms arena. We have said for quite some time that it is not sufficient that people are disqualified on conviction. Earlier, even after conviction, the legislator was allowed to run the rest of the term by filing an appeal. That was remedied by the 5SC order on instant disqualification upon conviction.
"But what we are asking is why allow the person who is likely to be convicted later creating a vacancy, preventing even at the contest stage (criminal candidates) with of course some safeguards," he said.
Sampath, who turned 65, demitted office today as CEC after an eventful tenure of less than six years, occasionally marked by controversies that saw him conduct two Lok Sabha elections and at least one round of Assembly polls in all the states.
Sampath said all cases of grave nature in which punishment is more than five years after framing of charges by a competent court has been recommended to ensure that there are no frivolous disqualifications at the contest stage and that also before a reasonable time, of say, six months before the schedule of the elections.
On the growing problem of paid news indulged in by candidates, he said now it was being done only from the expenditure angle of the candidate.
"The only deterrent now is that if he (candidate) indulges in paid new extensively, he would be breaching his expenditure limits.
"But at the same time, it is not a sufficient deterrent. It is not an electoral offence. Because if it is an electoral offence, if somebody is guilty of paid news, he will also face election petitions on that ground. That will be a further deterrent," the CEC said.
Secondly, he said at present there is no restriction on political parties over the money they are spending. So, if the paid news comes from the political party, candidate will also be the beneficiary.
"We have made a proposal that there should be a limit on spending by political parties in elections," he said adding that as of now the EC has not suggested a cap. "No, no cap suggested. Once it is accepted in principle, cap can be suggested. We have not come to that stage," he said in reply to a question.
Sampath said the Commission is opposed to converting the much-maligned Model Code of Conduct into a law on the ground that it would give an escape route to political parties and candidates because of the long judicial process that exceeds beyond the election period.
The necessity is for action within the two or three weeks of election period when the Model Code is in force, he said.
"Some political parties had proposed converting the Model Code into a law. But we are not in favour of it because the moment it becomes a law, the enforcement domain will go to the courts.
