Criminal Cases Against Legislators

Re-elected MLAs saw a sharp rise in wealth, while over half of all winners face criminal charges

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on March 18 a plea seeking to debar from polls, candidates charged with serious offences. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh would likely hear the matter. The apex court in September 2022 sought responses from the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. Aside from seeking to debar persons against whom charges were framed in criminal cases, the plea also sought directions to the Centre and the ECI to restrain such candidates put on trial for serious offences. The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, alleged that despite recommendations of the Law Commission of India and court's previous directions, the Centre and the ECI did not act. The plea said of the 539 winners of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, about 233 or 43 per cent, declared facing criminal cases. Referring to data from a report of NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, the petition said ther

A notable 21 per cent of the candidates are facing criminal cases, with 16 per cent involved in serious charges like attempted murder and crimes against women

Out of the 1,710 candidates contesting in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls, 21 per cent have declared criminal cases against themselves and 24 candidates have declared zero assets, as per the Association for Democratic Reforms report. The ADR and The National Election Watch analysed the self-sworn affidavits of 1710 out of 1717 candidates, who are contesting in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase IV on May 13. A total of 360 candidates have declared criminal cases against them. Emphasising the disparities amongst the financial backgrounds of the candidates with the richest candidate in the fray is Dr Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani of Telugu Desam Party with assets over Rs. 5,700 crore. Among the 360 candidates (21 per cent) with criminal cases, 17 candidates were convicted, 11 declared cases related to murder, 30 face charges of attempted murder and 50 candidates have criminal cases related to crimes against women, with 5 candidates facing charges of rape, the data showed. The ADR

Out of the 16%, 7 candidates have cases related to murder, 18 have declared cases related to crimes against women, and 35 candidates have cases related to hate speech against them

Of the 23 MPs re-elected between 2004 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, 12 of them have declared criminal cases against them, poll rights body ADR has said in its new analysis. Top re-elected MPs with the highest increase in assets include Jigajinagi Ramesh Chandappa, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, and Rao Inderjit Singh, whose assets witnessed substantial growth over the years. The analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Election Watch showed that nine of these MPs have serious criminal cases, including charges related to murder, attempt to murder, and dacoity. The analysis, based on the self-sworn affidavits of 23 re-elected MPs, highlights significant disparities in various aspects, raising questions about transparency and accountability in the political sphere. Out of the 23 re-elected MPs analysed, 52 per cent have declared criminal cases against thems and 39 per cent of these MPs have serious criminal cases, it said. The report also delves into party-wise ..

According to the ADR report, serious criminals cases meant those offences which carry punishment of five years or more

CJI Ramana also slammed the CBI for not filing the status report in the case

In total, 1,765 Indian MPs and MLAs have 3,045 criminal cases filed against them, up from 1,581 in 2014; Uttar Pradesh fares the worst in state-wise list of criminal cases against legislators