SC Judge: People Deserve Clean Politics, Need To Restrict People With Tainted Image From Contesting Polls

The judge stressed that the people of India should be given a choice to elect people with clean image and antecedents.

New Delhi:In a significant comment on ending the criminalisation of politics, especially when Assembly polls are slated in Delhi next month, a Supreme Court judge Justice Pankaj Mithal has said that it is high time that the citizens of India deserve a clean India, which means clean politics as well. The judge stressed that the people of India should be given a choice to elect people with clean image and antecedents.

Justice Mithal made these observations while rejecting an interim bail plea filed by Delhi riots accused and AIMIM candidate Tahir Hussain. Violence broke out in northeast Delhi on February 24, 2020, leaving 53 dead and several injured.

The allegations against the petitioner in the present case are not only in connection with the rioting but also of the murder of the official of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It had been alleged that his house/office was being used as the epicentre for the commission of the aforesaid offences in which the murder of one Ankit Sharma, an MHA official, is a sequel.

On Wednesday, a two-judge led by Justice Mithal and comprising Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah gave a split verdict on Hussain’s bail plea. Justice Amanullah said that he could be released on interim bail.

"I have examined the allegations and the evidence against the Petitioner. No doubt, they are grave and reprehensible but as of this moment they are exactly that – allegations," said Justice Amanullah, while granting interim bail to Hussain for a limited period. Delhi Police, which was represented by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju and advocate Rajat Nair, vehemently opposed interim bail for Hussain.

Justice Mithal, in the judgment authored by him, said the involvement of Hussain in as many as eleven cases including the present one, one pertaining to PMLA and nine in relation to the Delhi riots of 2020, dilutes and erodes his position as a law-abiding citizen.

"It is high time that the citizens of India deserve a clean India, which means clean politics as well and for the said purpose, it is necessary that people with tainted image, especially those who are in custody and had not been granted bail and those who are undertrial, even if out of jail, be restricted in some way or the other from participating in the election," said Justice Mithal.

He stressed that the people of India should be given a choice to elect people with a clean image and antecedents. Justice Mithal noted that the trial in the case against Hussain could get affected with him attempting to influence or threaten witnesses if released on bail for campaigning.

"Canvassing in an election can be done in many ways such as through newspapers, social media, pamphlets, writing letters and it is not necessary that it should be in the physical form such as by holding meetings and by personal contact," said Justice Mithal.

Justice Mithal said since, the incident mentioned in the FIR took place in the locality from where the petitioner is contesting, if the petitioner is permitted to move around freely, there is a very high possibility of his tampering with the witnesses who are or local people living in that locality alone.

Justice Mithal said it is also well accepted that a large number of people in the past have contested elections sitting behind the bars and they have won without being released for the purposes of canvassing. "Therefore, there is no special circumstance in the case of the petitioner to grant him interim bail for that purpose. Most of the time, the campaigning is done by the party or its workers and if one person in the party or the leader or even the candidate is debarred from canvassing, it does not in any way affect the legal right," he said.

However, Justice Amanullah said he is not able to concur with Justice Mithal's opinion. "It is settled law that magnitude and gravity of the offence alleged are not grounds, in and by themselves, to deny bail… moreso when trial is prolonged," said Justice Amanullah, in his opinion., adding that the petitioner's rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution cannot be lost sight of, and, as on date, no court of law has convicted the petitioner.

He said, "On the short point of period under custody already undergone as also the bail secured in the other cases, I am of the considered view that, subject to appropriate conditions being imposed, the Petitioner can be granted interim bail for a limited period".

The result of the split verdict is that Hussain will continue to remain in jail as the interim bail plea is now referred to Chief Justice of India to constitute a larger three-judge bench to decide the matter afresh.

On January 14, the Delhi High Court granted custody parole to Hussain to file nomination papers from the Mustafabad constituency on an AIMIM ticket.

However, the High Court declined to entertain his plea for interim bail from January 14 to February 9 to fight the polls, saying the gravity of allegations against Hussain, being the main perpetrator in the violence, resulting in the death of several persons, could not be overlooked.