New Delhi, June 28
Two days before the expiry of the Supreme Court deadline, the Election Commission (EC) today decided to implement the apex court’s directives on electoral reforms, including seeking of criminal antecedents of candidates and prescribed an affidavit to be furnished by candidates along with their nomination papers.

“Every candidate at the time of filing his nomination paper for any election to the Council of States, House of the People, Legislative Assembly of a State or the Legislative Council of a State having such a Council, shall furnish full and complete information... in an affidavit”, the commission said in a press note here.

The commission’s decision comes after the Central Government turned down its request for seeking extension of the deadline saying that the apex court directions were to the Election Commission.

The Supreme Court’s directives to the commission are to come into force from July 1.

Meanwhile, the Centre has convened an all-party meeting on July 8 to discuss the directions given by the apex court and examine what kind of legislative measures should be taken to prevent criminalisation of politics.

The commission press note said the affidavit by each candidate shall be duly sworn before a Magistrate of First Class or a Notary Public officer or a Commissioner of Oaths appointed by the high court of the state concerned.

Non-furnishing of the affidavit by any candidate shall be considered to be a violation of the Supreme Court order and his nomination will be liable to be rejected by the Returning Officer, it said. Furnishing of any wrong or incomplete information or suppression of any material information by any candidate in the affidavit may also result in the rejection of his nomination by the Returning Officer, apart from inviting penal consequences under the Indian Penal Code, it said.

The information furnished by each candidate in the affidavit shall be disseminated by the Returning Officers by displaying a copy of the affidavit on the notice board of his office and also by making the copies available freely and liberally to all other candidates and representatives of the print and electronic media, it said.

If any rival candidate furnishes information to the contrary, by means of a duly sworn affidavit, then such affidavit of the rival candidate shall also be disseminated along with the affidavit of the candidate concerned.

Apart from the affidavit, the candidate shall not be required to file any additional affidavit which was earlier required to be filed, the commission said.

In so far as elections to the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council of Jammu and Kashmir were concerned, the directions of the commission deemed to have been issued under the provisions of Section 138 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, which are akin to Article 324(1) of the Constitution of India and vest the superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of all elections of the state in the commission.