The Supreme Court judges are eager to know- why criminal elements continue to play a crucial role in elections against the law and apex court rulings to decriminalize politics???

Amid the three day retreat at the Bhopal judicial academy to reflect on developments in various sectors of the country, judges involving Chief Justice T S Thakur asked former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi on preventing criminal elements from arriving the poll arena and wanted to know the steps taken by the Election Commission in this regard.

Quraishi explained-“the EC had been very successful in strictly enforcing the model code of conduct and preventing any undue advantage to the ruling political party in elections”
The judges wanted to recognize- what the Election Commission had done to enforce the SC judgment directing all candidates to furnish their educational and criminal antecedents in an affidavit along with the nomination papers?

The judges wanted to know, “why the EC had not taken candidates to task for furnishing wrong information about assets owned by them and their family members”?

Quraishi said, “The Election Commission did not have the manpower to verify the contents of each and every affidavit. He said it was for rival candidates to point out falsehood in affidavits and upon receiving such complaints, the EC initiated action”

The judges also keen to know from the ex-CEC that-why the commission had failed to curb use of excessive money in elections despite a legal cap on candidates for each election?