by After four unsuccessful attempts seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against Centre for not implementing the 2018 judgment S N Shukla of Lok Prahari an NGO achieved success as a bench of justices B R Gavai, K V Viswanathan agreed to entertain the contempt petition At present candidates, their spouses only declare their assets in an election affidavitIn the 2018 judgment the SC had ruled that nondisclosure of assets, sources of income of candidates, their associates would constitute a corrupt practice falling under heading undue influence as defined under Section 1232 of the Representation of the People Act of 1951The SC had further said Information about the contracts with appropriate govt, any public company by the candidate hisher spouse, dependents directly or by Hindu undivided familytrustpartnership firmsprivate company companies in which the candidate, his spouse, dependents have a share or interest shall also be provided by the candidate in the affidavit in Form 26 prescribed under the rulesSC had also agreed with Lok Prahari that there was a need to set up a mechanism to periodically collect data of legislators, their associates for disproportionate increase in their assets
Published in The Times of India (Online) (31.07.2024)

by After 4 unsuccessful bids seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the Centre for not implementing the 2018 judgment S N Shukla of NGO Lok Prahari achieved success as a bench of Justices B R Gavai, K V Viswanathan agreed to take it upAt present election candidates, their spouses only declare their assets in a poll affidavitIn the 2018 judgment the SC had ruled that nondisclosure of assets, sources of income of candidates, their associates would constitute a corrupt practice falling under heading undue influence as defined under Section 1232 of the Representation of the People Act of 1951 The SC in 2018 order said Information about the contracts with appropriate govt, any public company by the candidate hisher spouse, dependents directly or by Hindu undivided familytrustpartnership firms private company companies in which the candidate, his spouse, dependents have a share or interest shall also be provided by the candidate in the affidavit in Form 26 prescribed under the rulesThe court had also agreed with Lok Prahari that there was a need to set up a permanent mechanism to periodically collect data of legislators, their associates for disproportionate increase in their assets, ruled that the body could recommend prosecution of the legislator or hisher associates, place the information before the legislature concerned to examine the eligibility of such a legislator to continue to be a member of the HouseData collected by the abovementioned mechanism along with analysis, recommendation if any should be placed in the public domain to enable voters to take informed, appropriate decisions if such legislator chooses to contest any election for any legislative body in future the SC had said
Published in The Times of India (Online) (31.07.2024)