BackCEC revives debate on 2-year jail for wrong information in poll affidavits
The two-year conviction period could bar the candidate from contesting elections for up to six years
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New Delhi: Ahead of the crucial Assembly elections in four states and one Union territory, chief election commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi has revived the debate on a key demand for electoral reforms, seeking two years’ imprisonment for those furnishing incorrect details in poll affidavits, a conviction period that could bar the candidate from contesting elections for up to six years.
“The commission has proposed that if there is any attempt to conceal relevant information... this should be criminalized and there should be a punishment of two years for concealing or giving false information in (poll) affidavit," Zaidi said, while addressing the 12th Annual National Conference on Electoral and Political Reforms on Saturday organized by the National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Currently, Section 125A of the Representation of People’s Act (RPA) provides for a punishment of up to six months of imprisonment or fine or both for furnishing wrong information or concealing any information in an election affidavit. There has been a long-standing demand to increase this punishment.
The Election Commission, while suggesting electoral reforms in 2004 formulated under then CEC T.S. Krishnamurthy, had said that the offence of undervaluing, concealing or not furnishing correct information in affidavits should attract a minimum prison term of two years and proposed doing away with the alternative clause for fine. Earlier in 1998, the Election Commission had written to the then law minister to make false declaration “an electoral offence" under RPA.
“The commission has proposed that if there is any attempt to conceal relevant information...this should be criminalized and there should be a punishment of two years for concealing or giving false information in (poll) affidavit," Zaidi said at the Saturday event.
“To plug the loophole (of inadequate or false information), the commission has proposed that any concealment of information must be punishable with two years imprisonment. The Law Commission has also endorsed it and the matter is under process of the law ministry," the CEC added.
In September 2013, the apex court ruled that politicians who conceal information in their nomination papers would be barred from contesting elections. But currently, the poll watchdog does not have powers to reject nominations in such a case and only a case under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) can be registered against an erring candidate.
According to an Election Commission official, who did not want to be named, the two-year imprisonment rule for false information in an election affidavit has already been conveyed to the law ministry and the poll watchdog is keen that the amendment to the law be made soon. “Earlier, if we received a complaint, we would ask the returning officer (RO) to go before a competent authority to prosecute a particular candidate. In 2012, this rule changed and now any citizen can approach a court of law against false information in an affidavit, making this more accountable," the EC official said.
The specific demand of two years’ imprisonment is interesting because this is the minimum conviction which bars a candidate from contesting elections. The sub-section (3) of Section 8 of the RPA Act states that “a person convicted of any other offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than 2 years shall be disqualified form the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of 6 years since his release".
Jagdeep Chhokar, founder member of NEW and ADR, said that an enhancement of punishment to two years would mean that a defaulting candidate can be disqualified from contesting elections for at least six years.
“The demand that CEC has made is important because two years would mean that it falls under the Section 8 of RPA which states that anyone with two years of conviction will be disqualified to contest polls for the next six years. The current punishment of six months and fine does not allow that and it needs to be corrected," he said.
This clause is, however, just one of the several other electoral reforms which the EC as well as civil society organizations have been demanding. “The political establishment does not want the system to change. They have the fear of the unknown and they are comfortable with the existing systems," Chhokar said.
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