SC notice to Centre, EC on plea seeking contempt proceedings for violation of court's order
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre and the EC on a plea seeking initiation of contempt proceedings for alleged violation of the apex court's judgment directing all candidates to declare their criminal antecedents to the poll panel before contesting elections.
A bench comprising Justices R F Nariman and Vineet Saran also sought response from the three deputy election commissioners, law secretary and the cabinet secretary for not complying with its judgment dated September 25, 2018.
The court was hearing a plea filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
In September last year, a five-judge Constitution bench had unanimously held that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission(EC) before contesting polls and had called for wider publicity, through print and electronic media about the antecedents of candidates.
On October 10 last year, the EC had issued notification regarding the amended Form-26, and directions to political parties and candidates for publication of criminal antecedents.
However, the plea filed by Upadhyay had alleged that the EC neither amended the Election Symbol Order, 1968 nor the model code of conduct (MCC) so the said notification has no legal sanction.
"On October 10, 2018, the ECI issued direction to political parties and candidates for publication of criminal antecedents without amending the Election Symbol Order & Model Code of Conduct so the direction has no legal sanction," the plea had said.
It had also said that the ECI did not publish a list of leading newspapers-news channels nor clarified the timing for declaration of criminal antecedents by candidates which led to the candidates publishing them in unpopular newspapers and news channels during odd hours.
"It (the ECI) had not published list of leading newspapers-news channels, so candidates published criminal antecedents in unpopular newspapers-news channels. The ECI has not clarified the timing of publication, so candidates published criminal history in odd hours when people don't watch news channels. Political parties had neither published the details on website nor in newspapers or news channels during assembly elections, but the ECI did nothing against them," the plea had alleged.
"On March 10, the ECI announced the dates of General Election without amending the Election Symbol Order & Model Code of Conduct, which is essential for compliance of Judgment dated 25.9.2018 hence petitioner is filing the contempt petition," it had said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
