SC to consider hearing pleas against practice of parties promising freebies during polls

A view of the Supreme Court (SC) of India.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

Describing the issue of political parties promising freebies during elections as “very important”, the Supreme Court on Wednesday (September 18, 2024) said it will not delete from its list of businesses pleas filed against the practice.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was told by lawyer and PIL petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay that the pleas were already there in the list of business for the day and they needed to be heard.

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As the Bench was seized of another part-heard matter, it was quite unlikely the PILs on freebies will be taken up during the day for the hearing, he said. The lawyer also urged that the pleas be kept on board so they can be heard at a later date.

“This will not be deleted (from the cause list),” the CJI said, adding that the issues raised were “very important”.

The pleas were last mentioned for urgent hearing on March 20 this year.

In his plea, Mr. Upadhyay also sought a direction to the Election Commission to invoke its powers to freeze election symbols and cancel the registration of such political parties.

The plea said there should be a total ban on populist measures to gain undue political favour from voters as they violate the Constitution, and the EC should take suitable deterrent measures.

It also 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.

“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,” said the plea.

“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,” it said.

There are eight recognised national political parties and 56 state-level recognised parties. The total number of registered unrecognised political parties in the country is around 2,800.