NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday agreed in principle that filing of a false affidavit during an election is a “corrupt practices” but refused to direct Parliament to enact a law to disqualify such a person from contesting the poll.
The top court said it “agrees that the election affidavit should be treated seriously, but we cannot direct for a legislation”.
A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao tagged the plea along with the pending petition and said all the petitions will be heard together.
“We agree with you in principle that the affidavit should be treated seriously. We agree with you on morality, but we cannot direct for a legislation. We cannot direct Parliament that they should include it in corrupt practices,” the bench said.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking a direction to the Centre to take appropriate steps to make false declaration before the Election Commission and Chief Electoral Officer an electoral offence in line with the important electoral reforms proposed by the poll panel. (AGENCIES)
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