Taking a serious note of freebies announced by political parties ahead of elections, the Supreme Court, issued a notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI.)
On the 25th of January, Tuesday, the Apex Court bench, headed by Mr. N.V. Ramana, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) reviewed a petition. The petitioner Ashwini Kumar said, “The ‘tamasha’ has been going on for decades. Promises always remain as promises. Most of them, except freebies, are not implemented.”
CJI N.V. Ramana asked the EC and the Central Government to take a legal path, saying the freebies budget goes beyond the regular budget and needs legal action.
The court also asked the EC to dismiss parties, which offer “irrational freebies” to woo voters.
During the hearing, the bench of Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, Justices A.S. Bopanna, and Hima Kohli issued notice to the Centre and the top poll body on a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, represented by senior advocate Vikas Singh, to issue stringent guidelines to deregister the errant political parties and seize their election symbols.
The CJI said, “This is no doubt a serious issue. The budget for freebies seems to go beyond the regular budget… sometimes it is not a level playing field for some parties… How can we manage or control this?”
The court said it would start, for the time being, by issuing notice to the Centre and the ECI, which have been named respondents now. The court listed the case after four weeks.
Notably, the matter came ahead of the Assembly elections in the five states: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, and Karnataka.
Stay tuned for further updates.
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