EC not to implement SC order

Sandesh Prabhudesai
6 May 2002   .

The Election Commission has decided not to implement the Supreme Court order regarding criminal background of candidates in Goa Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, a notification regarding elections scheduled for 30 May was issued today, beginning the process of filing of nomination from today, till 13 May.

While the EC has been given two-month time to implement the court order, the commission found too short of a time to implement it in Goa, as the order was issued just last week.

As per the order, the nomination form was to have additional columns, making it compulsory for the candidates to furnish details of their criminal background, disclose assets of candidate, his spouse and other dependants as well as debts owed to the financial institutions.

"We are examining the order and will implement it accordingly", said election commissioner T S Krishnamurthy, who is in Goa since yesterday.

According to him, though the judgement is being issued in good faith, it will only keep the voter more informed about the candidate's background. May be the order cannot restrain the candidate from contesting, but it is definitely a step forward, said Krishnamurthy.

The EC has also decided to go back to its original position of allowing all kind of authorised identities for voting purpose, including the use of ration card. The only addition in Goa would be that no ration card issued after 1 April would be considered valid.

Reversing its own decision of making use of only the photo identity card compulsory, Krishnamurthy said almost all the political parties felt that all the voters may not have photo I-cards. On the other hand, there were also complaints of bogus ration cards being issued in a last fortnight.

Regarding the proposal of state funding, Krishnamurthy felt that it may not fully help controlling use of black money in elections. "Creating conducive conditions and limiting expenditure are the real remedies for it", he added.

The EC is apparently awaiting implementation of recommendations made by the constitutional review committee, which also suggests a comprehensive legislation in this regard.

"To control the use of black money, I personally feel that compulsions like auditing accounts of the candidate and making it available to the public will have a real effect", Krishnamurthy feels.

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