The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to intervene on a plea to debar candidates facing criminal charges from contestingelections, preferring to leave it to Parliament to enact suitable laws to “cure the malignancy” and stop such people from entering politics. The five-judge constitution bench, however, said that if a candidate had a criminal background, it must be given the widest possible publicity, including in the print and electronic media. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra dealt with a batch of petitions filed by two NGOs and an advocate. The Public Interest Foundation and the Bharatiya Matdata Sangathan and advocate Ashwini Upadhyay had wanted all candidates facing criminal charges, but not convicted, to be barred from contesting any elections in the country. The petitioners had submitted statistics to say that nearly 34 per cent of parliamentarians at present faced serious criminal charges.

Source: The Telegraph September 25, 2018 21:56 UTC