Supreme Court issues a notice to the Center<\/a> and EC when a petition was filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in the apex court last week seeking a direction to the Election Commission to seize the election symbol or de-register a political party that promises or distributes ‘irrational freebies’ from public funds before elections.<\/p>\nIt said there should be a total ban on such populist measures to gain undue political favors from the voters as they violate the Constitution and the ECI should take suitable deterrent measures.<\/p>\n
The plea urged the court to declare that the promise of irrational freebies from public funds before elections unduly influences the voters, disturbs the level playing field, and vitiates the purity of the poll process.<\/p>\n
Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in his plea wrote, “Petitioner submits that 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,” said the plea filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 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,” it said.<\/p>\n
The petition has also sought a direction to the ECI to insert an additional condition in the relevant paragraphs of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968, which deals with conditions for recognition as a state party, that a “political party shall not promise\/distribute irrational freebies from the public fund before the election”.<\/p>\n
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