8.2.9. Ruling on Nomination Papers

The Supreme Court in September, 2013 ruled that a returning officer could reject nomination papers of a candidate for non-disclosure and suppression of information, including that of assets and their criminal background.

The apex court said that voters have a fundamental right to know about their candidates and leaving columns blank in the nomination paper amounts to violation of their right.

The Court passed the judgment on a Public Interest Litigation filed in 2008 by NGO Resurgence India, a civil rights group, which detected a trend among candidates of leaving blank the columns demanding critical information about them.

The Election Commission had supported the NGO's plea that no column should be allowed to be left blank, which tantamount to concealing information and not filing a complete affidavit.

It had also taken a stand that the returning officer should be empowered to reject the nomination papers of a candidate who provides incomplete information by leaving some columns blank in the affidavit.