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

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2018 INSC 862Decided 25 Sept 2018
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 536 of 2011
Chief Justice Dipak Misra · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman · Justice A.M. Khanwilkar · Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice Indu Malhotra

Background

A batch of writ petitions and connected criminal appeals asked the Supreme Court to bar candidates facing serious criminal charges (not yet convicted) from contesting elections, arguing that the "criminalisation of politics" was eroding Indian democracy, and that Parliament's failure to legislate on the point left a gap the Court should fill. The question was whether the judiciary could read an additional disqualification into Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (which currently disqualifies candidates only upon conviction, not mere accusation), given that Article 102/191 of the Constitution assigns the power to prescribe disqualifications to Parliament.

Decision Breakdown

The Constitution Bench held that it could not itself add a new ground of disqualification, merely facing a pending criminal charge, however serious, because that would amount to legislating in a field the Constitution has expressly reserved to Parliament; existing disqualification is tied to conviction, not accusation, in order to protect the presumption of innocence. However, recognising that voters have a fundamental right to know a candidate's criminal antecedents to make an informed choice, the Court issued binding directions: candidates must fully and truthfully disclose pending criminal cases in the nomination form in bold letters, inform their political party of such cases, parties must publish this information on their websites, and both the candidate and party must give wide publicity to it in newspapers and electronic media at least three times after filing nomination. The Court urged Parliament to enact a law addressing the deeper problem of criminalisation of politics, while disposing of the writ petitions and criminal appeals with these disclosure directions.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can mandate transparency (disclosure of criminal cases) to protect voters' right to information even where they lack the constitutional power to create a new disqualification themselves: some problems require legislative action, and the judiciary's role is limited to filling procedural gaps, not rewriting substantive eligibility rules for elected office.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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