The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it could not add more disqualifications to the Representation of the People Act and left it to Parliament to decide whether candidates chargesheeted in serious criminal cases should be allowed to contest elections. Stating that India was facing an increasing trend of criminalisation of politics, the bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said the “nation eagerly waits for such legislation (against criminalisation of politics)”. Precisely, the SC left it to parliament to frame appropriate law in this regard.

The bench, also comprising Justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, was hearing a batch of petitions seeking disqualification of chargesheeted lawmakers from contesting elections. The petitions were filed by NGO Public Interest Foundation and Delhi BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

The apex court, however, issued directions to candidates to state in bold in their election forms the criminal cases pending against them and inform their parties of the same. It directed political parties to mention pending cases against legislators on their websites and publish the same in a widely circulated newspaper at least three times after the nomination is filed.

During the hearing, Attorney General K K Venugopal, representing the Centre, had opposed the plea saying under the Indian law, there is presumption of innocence unless proven guilty. Further, he had told the court that the judiciary cannot get into law-making, which is reserved for the legislature.