The issue of criminalisation of politics needs to be revisited to enhance the faith of citizens in democracy and to improve the quality of elections. “I would like to reiterate that such temporary debarment will be in the larger public interest,” Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi told PTI in a wide-ranging interview. “The fact is that power to disqualify anyone is not with the EC but with Parliament. Under the existing law, a person is disqualified for contesting election only on conviction," he said.

“It is ironic that a person in jail is free to contest elections during the pendency of trial, though he is not eligible to vote,” the CEC said. He recalled that the poll panel had recommended that persons facing serious criminal charges like murder, rape, extortion etc, where punishment on conviction may exceed five years, should be debarred from contesting elections during the pendency of their cases before the courts.

However, the Parliamentary Committee that went into the issue, did not approve it on the ground that under the jurisprudence followed in the country, a person is presumed to be innocent unless convicted and people are implicated in many false cases due to political rivalry and other reasons, Quraishi said.

He said, “If the view of presumed innocence of a undertrial prisoners is to be accepted, why are they deprived of their fundamental rights of free movement, freedom to live with their families, freedom to follow their own professions, freedom of speech and expression.” “And if such fundamental rights can be abridged, why not the right to contest an election which is only a statutory right?,” he asked. — PTI