Making political class accountable for the growth in their personal and family assets

Making political class accountable for the growth in their personal and family assets, the Supreme Court in a significant decision on Friday held that, henceforth, all contesting candidates for election to Parliament and Legislative Assemblies must disclose the source of their income and that of their spouse and dependants. Non-disclosure of such information will amount to corrupt practice under Section 123(2) of the Representation of the People Act, leading to disqualification of the winning candidate, the bench added.

The decision came on a PIL filed by NGO LokPrahari that produced a report prepared by the Association of Democratic Rights (ADR) that showed a five-fold increase in the assets of several current MPs and MLAs by comparing the asset information of the politicians and their spouse and dependants with the nomination forms filed by them in the previous elections.

A Bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer observed that "undue accretion of assets" of elected representatives and their associates was a matter that should "alarm the citizens and voters of any truly democratic society" as the electors have a fundamental right to know the relevant information about the candidates contesting polls.

The Court directed that Rule 4A of the Rules (Conduct of Election Rules, 1961) and Form 26 appended to the Rules to be suitably amended requiring candidates and their associates (spouse and dependents) to declare their sources of income. The Court also directed the Centre to put in place a mechanism to periodically collect data of the elected representatives, their spouses and dependents in order to examine whether there was any "disproportionate increase" in their assets and recommend appropriate action in such cases.

The Court held, "Purity of electoral process is fundamental to the survival of a healthy democracy…If left unattended it would inevitably lead to the destruction of democracy and pave the way for the rule of mafia. Democracies with higher levels of energy have already taken note of the problem and addressed it. Unfortunately, in our country, neither Parliament, nor the Election Commission of India paid any attention to the problem so far."

Although the petitioner demanded an investigation into how certain elected representatives managed to get their assets multiply by five-fold, the bench declined to hold such "selective scrutiny" that could lead to "political witch-hunting".

The top court also said there was a need to make appropriate provision declaring that undue accretion of assets was a ground for disqualifying a legislator even without prosecuting him for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act but left it to the Centre to make such a stipulation. 

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23-02-2018