“Why no
background declaration by people contesting for the President’s office?”,
National Election Watch ask Election Commission of India
Mr Gopalaswami N(former CEC) and T S
Krishnamurty(former CEC) also agree that the filing of affidavit should be made
mandatory on the lines of Supreme Court’s judgment.
New Delhi: June 18, 2012: Since 2003 judgement of Supreme court
directing the Election Commission to get background information on criminal
records, assets, liabilities, education etc. on an affidavit, all candidates
contesting parliament or legislative assembly elections have to give this
declaration to the election commission on an affidavit. Following in the steps
of Election commission of India, most State Election Commissions (SECs) have
also implemented it in the elections to local bodies(Panchayats and Municipal
elections).
However, there is no such
declaration in force for Presidential elections. National Election Watch (NEW)
has written to Election Commission of India requesting it to enforce the same
for candidates contesting for the offices of President and Vice-President
starting with the cngoing elections. The Election Commission is yet to take a
decision on the issue.
In its letter to the Election
Commission, NEW has made the following arguments:
1.
As per the Supreme Court Judgment 2003, it states that "The
Election Commission is directed to call for information on affidavit
by issuing necessary order in exercise of its power under Article
324 of the Constitution of India from each candidate seeking
election to Parliament or a State Legislature as a necessary part of
his nomination paper”.
As per Article 79 of the
Constitution of India, the Parliament consists of the President and two Houses
known as the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the
People (Lok Sabha). Thus the proper implementation of the afore mentioned
judgment of the Supreme Court requires the implementation of the
affidavits for all candidates contesting presidential and vice-presidential
elections also.
2.
The Supreme Court has also mentioned that this judgment has
reached finality. And using the various arguments in the order, several
other public bodies have implemented this order in their elections, e.g.
in Panchayat and Municipal Body elections.
The office of the President is one
of the most important positions in our country and theright now the
only elections to a public office where the candidates are not required
to submit self sworn affidavits on their background details at the
time of filing their nominations.
3.
The President is the head of the Union Executive. The implementation of
the Supreme Court Judgment will bring about more transparency and
will set a good example for others to follow. The Election Commission
should take lead on this and issue the appropriate orders for its
implementation.
Commenting on the same issue
Mr. M.N Gopalaswamy (Former Chief Election Commissioner) said: “In my view EC
should extend this requirement to the elections to the office of the President
and Vice President of India as they are elected offices and it is in the fitness
of things that all elected offices in the country, from the lowest level namely
to the Panchayats to the highest namely to the President (and Vice
President) of India ,are brought within the same discipline.”
Mr T S Krishnamurthy (Former
Election Commissioner) also agreed. He said, “I agree with ECI that the SC
judgement is not quite clear but in continuation of the SC order the Right to
Information should extend to Presidential electors as well for the
electors to know all about the candidates before exercising their votes This is
more so as The party whip does not apply to this election.Morever, the Election
Commission can extend the logic of the SC order under its inherent powers
to require thse candidates should file the affidavits in the interest of free
& fair elections.”
Amongst others, the letter sent
to the ECI has been signed/endorsed by the following people:
Prof Trilochan Sastry, Professor
IIM, Bangalore (National Election Watch/ Karnataka Election Watch)
Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, Former Director In-charge of IIM,
Ahmedabad (National Election Watch / Gujarat Election Watch)
Mr Ajit Ranade, National
Election Watch /Maharashtra Election Watch
Mr Anil Bairwal, National
Coordinator (Association for Democratic Reforms/National Election Watch)
Shri I.C. Dwivedi, Former DGP,
Uttar Pradesh (Uttar Pradesh Election Watch)
Mr Nikhil Dey, Founder Member
MKSS (Rajasthan Election Watch)
Dr Sudarsan Pabmanaban, Professor
IIT Chennai, (Tamil Nadu Election Watch)
Mr Ranjan Mohanty,Director PECUC, ( Coordinator Odisha
Election Watch)
Mr. Jaskirat Singh, Coordinator
Punjab Election Watch
Mr Uttkarsh Sinha, Senior
Journalist,(Uttar Pradesh Election Watch)
Dr Lenin, Uttar Pradesh Election
Watch
Mr Sanjay Singh, Uttar Pradesh
Election Watch
Mr Sanjay Rai, Uttar Pradesh
Election Watch
Mr Rajiv Kumar, Bihar Election
Watch
Mr. Bhasker Assoldekar, Goa State Cordinator,(Goa Election
Watch)
Dr B.P. maithani ,Uttarakhand
Election Watch
Mr Rakesh Dubbudu, Andhra Pradesh
Election Watch
Mr Gautam Bandyopadhyay,
Chhatisgarh Election Watch
Mr Biplab Halim, West Bengal
Election Watch
Mr P Joseph Victor Raj,
Puducherry Election Watch
Tasaduk Ariful Hussain, Executive Director NEST (Manipur
Election Watch)
Biswendu Bhattacharjee, Coordinator Tripura Election
Watch
Mr. Vanlalruata, PRISM (Mizoram
Election Watch)
Mr. J.R Ramoul, Himachal Pradesh
Election Watch