SC dismisses plea seeking criminal actions against Sonia Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav
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New Delhi: A plea seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Sonia Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav for not complying with the Supreme Court order in terms of declaring criminal antecedents of candidates in UP Assembly elections, has got a rebuttal from the Supreme Court.
The plaintiff was seeking action in accordance with the apex court's direction to heads of political parties, urging them to declare the criminal antecedents of their candidates.
Dismissing the plea filed by Advocate Brajesh Singh, the bench of Justices B R Gavai and P S Narasimha said the Election Commission is the competent authority in the matter.
The plea said that Sonia Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and Akhilesh Yadav should be held accountable for not publishing the details of their candidates as per the Supreme Court's direction.
The plea claimed that these parties did not comply with the apex court's August 2021 judgment to declare criminal antecedents of its Uttar Pradesh assembly poll candidates.
The apex court, in August 2021, directed the political parties to upload on their websites and social media platforms the details of pending criminal cases against their candidates and the reasons for selecting them as also for not giving tickets to those without criminal antecedents.
It had said these details should be published within 48 hours of the selection of the candidate or at least two weeks before the first date for filing of nominations, whichever is earlier.
The details should also be published on official social media platforms of the political parties, including Facebook and Twitter, and also in one local vernacular and one national newspaper, as the apex court had directed.
In September 2018, a five-judge constitution bench unanimously held that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting polls and called for wider publicity, through print and electronic media about the antecedents of candidates.
PTI Input
