Supreme Court agrees to list PIL against freebies given by political parties

Supreme Court/ File pic

The Supreme Court has consented to hear a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging political parties' practice of offering freebies during elections. The PIL, filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay, also asks the Election Commission (EC) to take action against these parties.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra consented to schedule the PIL for a hearing on Thursday and said, "This is important. We will keep this on board tomorrow."

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Senior counsel Vijay Hansaria, representing the petitioner, emphasised the importance of the situation, particularly with the general election approaching, reported PTI.

According to the report, the PIL bats for a blanket ban on populist measures aimed at influencing voters and seeks the court to declare such promises of freebies as unconstitutional. It claims that such behaviour undermines democratic norms and distorts the election system.

The petitioner requests that the EC include new criteria in the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968 to prevent parties from promising or delivering nonsensical giveaways before elections, the PTI report added.

The case also underlined a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law, as a result of the distribution of private products or services from public monies for political purposes, the report further stated.

The PTI report cited the plea stating, "Petitioner submits that the recent trend of political parties to influence voters by offering freebies with an eye on elections is not only the greatest threat to the survival of democratic values but also injures the spirit of the Constitution."

"This unethical practice is just like giving bribes to the electorate at the cost of the exchequer to stay in power and must be avoided to preserve democratic principles and practices," the plea further said.

There are currently eight established national political parties, 56 state-level recognised parties, and around 2,800 registered unrecognised political parties in the country.

The Lok Sabha elections are set to begin on April 19 and end on June 1. Votes will be counted on June 4. The nomination procedure for 102 parliamentary constituencies spread across 21 states began on Wednesday, the PTI report added.