Father, son fight it out in SC on criminalisation of politics

A father and son were on the loggerheads today in the Supreme Court on the issue of disqualification of a lawmaker facing criminal charges, with the former saying the matter fell in the domain of the legislature and the latter insisting that the court should issue directions in this regard to the poll panel.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, which is hearing PILs seeking to bar persons facing serious criminal charges from electoral politics, heard the arguments by Attorney General K K Venugopal, representing the Centre, and his son and senior lawyer Krishnan Venugopal and senior advocate Dinesh Dwivedi appearing for the petitioners.

Senior advocate Krishnan Venugopal, who is fighting the case against his father, suggested that to deal with the issue of decriminalising politics, either a law may be passed or the court can direct the poll panel to ask political parties not to give tickets to persons with criminal records.

He also suggested that the fixed election symbol of a national or state level recognised political parties may be cancelled if they gave tickets to such candidates.

He also said that the EC can ask the political parties to insert by-laws in their constitutions that they will not allow persons facing trial in cases, where minimum sentence prescribed is five years jail term, to fight elections on their tickets. It would serve the "larger good of the society", he added.

The Attorney General vehemently opposed the submissions of his son and Dinesh Dwivedi, saying they were trying to achieve a "particular result indirectly" which they cannot achieve "directly".

"The question is whether it is the matter to be dealt by the legislature or it can be dealt by the judiciary... can the five judges sitting in the constitution bench decide the disqualification," the top law officer said.

He said that considering the concept of separation of power, the issue of disqualification of lawmakers should not be dealt with by the judiciary.

When the AG asked "Can the judiciary decide the disqualification aspect", the bench said "we have no doubt in our mind that we cannot make the law."