Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Acting upon the Supreme Court direction on criminal antecedents of political candidates, Election Commission has created a fund in which fines collected from contempt of court proceedings can be deposited. Among other directions, the court had said that such a fund must be created.
EC sources said that work on creating a dedicated app for publication of criminal antecedents of political candidates is in progress. The poll panel on Friday wrote letters to all national and state political parties and informed them about its initiative. The letter was also sent to state election commission offices.
“In compliance of the Supreme Court directions, Election Commission of India has created a fund in which fines for contempt of court can be deposited,” said the letter.
The court had on August 10 directed the Election Commission to create a dedicated mobile application containing information published by the candidates regarding their criminal antecedents so that voter gets the information on his or her mobile phone.
The poll panel was also directed to create a separate cell to monitor compliance and apprise the court of non-compliance on the part of any political party of the directions issued by the court. The apex court had held several political parties guilty of contempt during the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls, for disobeying an order requiring them to publish antecedents of candidates within 48 hours of selection or not less than two weeks before filing of nominations and imposed varying fines on them.