New Delhi: The Supreme Court has sought responses from the Centre and the Election Commission on a fresh petition challenging the practice of political parties promising freebies during elections. The matter came up on Monday before a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The apex court issued notices to the Union of India and the poll panel on a petition filed by Bengaluru resident Shashank J Sreedhara. The petition argued that the unchecked offer of freebies places a substantial and untracked financial burden on the public treasury. It also argued that there is no system in place to guarantee the fulfilment of pre-election promises that were used to secure votes.
The petition, filed through Adv. Balaji Srinivasan also sought to direct the poll panel to take effective steps to restrain political parties from making promises of freebies during the pre-election period. The apex court has tagged the matter with other pleas on similar issues.
Earlier, the apex court had agreed to list a batch of petitions against the practice of political parties promising freebies during elections after senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, representing advocate and PIL petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay, sought an urgent hearing of the matter.
The plea filed by Upadhyay contended that there should be a total ban on populist measures to gain undue political favour from voters as they violate the Constitution, and the Election Commission should take suitable deterrent measures.
