“Why no background declaration by people contesting for the President’s office?”, National Election Watch ask Election Commission of India

Mr Gopalaswami N(former CEC) and T S Krishnamurty(former CEC) also agree that the filing of affidavit should be made mandatory on the lines of Supreme Court’s judgment.

New Delhi: June 18, 2012: Since 2003 judgement of Supreme court directing the Election Commission to get background information on criminal records, assets, liabilities, education etc. on an affidavit, all candidates contesting parliament or legislative assembly elections have to give this declaration to the election commission on an affidavit. Following in the steps of Election commission of India, most State Election Commissions (SECs) have also implemented it in the elections to local bodies(Panchayats and Municipal elections).

However, there is no such declaration in force for Presidential elections. National Election Watch (NEW) has written to Election Commission of India requesting it to enforce the same for candidates contesting for the offices of President and Vice-President starting with the cngoing elections. The Election Commission is yet to take a decision on the issue.

In its letter to the Election Commission, NEW has made the following arguments:

1.       As per the Supreme Court Judgment 2003, it states that "The  Election Commission is directed to call for information on affidavit  by  issuing necessary order in exercise of its power under Article  324 of the  Constitution of India from each candidate seeking election  to Parliament or  a State Legislature as a necessary part of his  nomination paper”.

 As per Article 79 of the Constitution of India, the Parliament consists of the President and two Houses known as  the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People  (Lok Sabha). Thus the proper implementation of the afore mentioned judgment of the  Supreme Court requires the implementation of the affidavits for all candidates contesting presidential and vice-presidential elections also.

2.        The Supreme Court has also mentioned that this judgment has  reached finality. And using the various arguments in  the order, several other public bodies have implemented this order in their  elections, e.g. in Panchayat and Municipal Body  elections.

The office of the President is one of the most important positions in  our  country and theright now the only elections to a public office where the candidates are not  required to  submit self sworn affidavits on their background details  at the time of  filing their nominations.

3.       The President is the head of the Union Executive. The implementation of the Supreme Court Judgment will bring about more  transparency and will set a good example for others to follow.  The Election Commission should take lead on this and issue the appropriate orders for its implementation.

Commenting on the same issue Mr. M.N Gopalaswamy (Former Chief Election Commissioner) said: “In my view EC should extend this requirement to the elections to the office of the President and Vice President of India as they are elected offices and it is in the fitness of things that all elected offices in the country, from the lowest level namely to  the Panchayats to the highest namely to the President (and Vice President) of India ,are brought within the same discipline.”

Mr T S Krishnamurthy (Former Election Commissioner) also agreed. He said, “I agree with ECI that the SC judgement is not quite clear but in continuation of the SC order the Right to Information  should extend to Presidential electors as well for the electors to know all about the candidates before exercising their votes This is more so as The party whip does not apply to this election.Morever, the Election Commission can extend the logic of the  SC order under its inherent powers to require thse candidates should file the affidavits in the interest of free & fair elections.”

Amongst others, the letter sent to the ECI has been signed/endorsed by the following people:

Prof Trilochan Sastry, Professor IIM, Bangalore (National  Election Watch/ Karnataka Election Watch)

Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, Former Director In-charge of IIM, Ahmedabad (National  Election Watch / Gujarat Election Watch)

Mr Ajit Ranade, National  Election Watch /Maharashtra Election Watch

Mr Anil Bairwal, National Coordinator (Association for Democratic Reforms/National Election Watch)

Shri I.C. Dwivedi, Former DGP, Uttar Pradesh (Uttar Pradesh Election Watch)

Mr Nikhil Dey, Founder Member MKSS (Rajasthan Election Watch)

Dr Sudarsan Pabmanaban, Professor IIT Chennai, (Tamil Nadu Election Watch)

Mr Ranjan Mohanty,Director PECUC, ( Coordinator Odisha Election Watch)

Mr. Jaskirat Singh, Coordinator Punjab Election Watch

Mr Uttkarsh Sinha, Senior Journalist,(Uttar Pradesh Election Watch)

Dr Lenin, Uttar Pradesh Election Watch

Mr Sanjay Singh, Uttar Pradesh Election Watch

Mr Sanjay Rai, Uttar Pradesh Election Watch

Mr Rajiv Kumar, Bihar Election Watch

Mr. Bhasker Assoldekar, Goa State Cordinator,(Goa Election Watch)

Dr B.P. maithani ,Uttarakhand Election Watch

Mr Rakesh Dubbudu, Andhra Pradesh Election Watch

Mr Gautam Bandyopadhyay, Chhatisgarh Election Watch

Mr Biplab Halim, West Bengal Election Watch

Mr P Joseph Victor Raj, Puducherry Election Watch

Tasaduk Ariful Hussain, Executive Director NEST (Manipur Election Watch)

Biswendu Bhattacharjee, Coordinator Tripura Election Watch

Mr. Vanlalruata, PRISM (Mizoram Election Watch)

Mr. J.R Ramoul, Himachal Pradesh Election Watch