The Supreme Court on Thursday directed political parties to publish credentials, achievements and criminal antecedents of candidates on newspaper, social media platforms and on their website while giving a reason for selection of candidate with criminal antecedents.
A bench, headed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat, asked political parties to adduce reasons for selection of candidates with criminal antecedents.
Political parties must also justify why they could not select clean candidates, the Apex Court said and added that winnability cannot be the only justification for choosing tainted candidates.
The Top Court also asked the Election Commission of India to file contempt petition if political parties do not not comply with the order.
The Apex Court passed the order on a contempt plea filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.
The petitioner claimed that the directions given by the Top Court in its September 2018 verdict relating to disclosure of criminal antecedents by poll candidates were not being followed.