Allahabad HC issues notices to major parties to ban caste-based rallies

[Sachin=GOD]

Judicial activism to clean Indian politics continues, Allahabad HC issues notices to major parties to ban caste-based rallies

Allahabad: The judicial activism to cleanse Indian politics continued on Thursday after a bench of Allahabad High Court issued notices to major political parties asking them to refrain from organizing political rallies which appealed to a particular caste. Significantly, the ruling comes in wake of Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati holding a huge rally in Uttar Pradesh which was apparently aimed at mobilizing people of a particular caste. Not only Mayawati, the verdict, if it goes unchallenged, can sound the death knell for caste-based mobilizing politics of major political outfits, and could also go a long way in secularizing Indian polity in truest sense. The verdict comes a day after a two-judge bench of the apex court struck down a contentious provision under the Representation of People’s Act that bars those convicted in criminal from contesting elections but allows them to retain membership of Parliament and state legislative assemblies, which effectively disquialifies convicted politicians from holding a parliamentary or legislative seat, besides prohibiting them to contest elections if they have spend more than two years in prison.

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/UP-indian-politics-allahabad-hc-caste-based-rallies-ban-mayawati-4317095-NOR.html :hatsoff::hatsoff: to the Courts around the country for trying to clean up the political system.

[FischerTal]

good ruling, but im sure there will be a loophole.

[Crookbond]

Actually, there is generally no loophole and as always the problem is in implementation of these rules. Here's a snippet from the report on the SC ruling yesterday on MPs/MLAs. IMO, this applies to most cases -

Everything in trial of criminal cases boils down to investigation and thus, to the police. While the judiciary normally takes the flak for delay in concluding cases, the real culprit are the police. The police are normally under pressure, usually from politically bosses, to proceed with the investigation, particularly against those powerful, with deliberate slowness. Moreover, there is hardly any mechanism to ensure that investigation is of good quality and after much delay won’t flat in the court. The denial of the fundamental right of the accused to be heard within a reasonable frame of time is normal given the obvious lacunae in the investigation mechanism. Unless this issue is addressed first, there is little hope of good trials and quick convictions.

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/sc-order-on-convicted-netas-why-it-doesnt-mean-much-946361.html?utm_source=top_menu

[FischerTal]

Dm, do you think there can be a ruling in which police is made independent of political control?

[beetle]

:hatsoff::hatsoff::hatsoff:@ allahabad HC

[Sachin=GOD]

Dm' date=' do you think there can be a ruling in which police is made independent of political control?[/quote'] a ruling won't be enough to do that. You need large scale changes in the entire police administration and system to achieve something like that.

[Crookbond]

Is the police under political control by definition? I am not sure.

[FischerTal]

Is the police under political control by definition? I am not sure.

Well, dont they come under the Home Ministry? :dontknow:

[Sachin=GOD]

Is the police under political control by definition? I am not sure.

I think he meant political influence.

[Crookbond]

Well' date=' dont they come under the Home Ministry? :dontknow:[/quote'] I think the MHA handles finance and administration of the police force without stepping on the constitutional powers of the state. The individual state in particular has a more direct influence in the police force per se which I think is the core issue.

[bulbul]

Good inititative. But how they are going to implement this? Parties can arrange meeting without naming it as a caste based meet.Also you can go door to door and meet same caste people. Didn't read the article fully , but does it mentione religion based meet as well??

[beetle]

^Atleast they will be less blatant about it.Parties like SP and BSP ki to rozi roti is caste based hai!

[saneindian]

Be ready for more Maharana Pratap Utsav, Rani Laxmibai Sammelan, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Samaroh, Parshuram Sabha . Easy to circumvent this. While they are focussing on caste based rallies, why leave alone the religion based rallies? Also, does this not impede on Article 19 of our constitution which gives us the right of freedom of assembly and also forming an association?

[beetle]

Religion based rallies are already a no go by the election commission.

[bulbul]

Religion based rallies are already a no go by the election commission.

But what stops parties from arranging Hindu utsav , Iftar party or Christmas party etc. ? how to stop this?

[beetle]

You can't stop people doing all that...using religion blatantly to ask for votes is a no no. we are a fairly religious country and to expect people from desist from everything religious during election time is not going to happen.

[bulbul]

You can't stop people doing all that...using religion blatantly to ask for votes is a no no. we are a fairly religious country and to expect people from desist from everything religious during election time is not going to happen.

Then stopping caste based politics also not possible.As Saneindian posted now they can easily change the names of rally.

[Sachin=GOD]

BJP welcomes HC order against caste rallies, appeals for caste census ban

Buoyed by the decision of the High Court to ban caste rallies in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP has now appealed for a ban on caste census too. The caste census, BJP claims, would negate the very purpose for which the ban has been ordered. “If caste census isn’t stopped, then it would aggravate the division of society into various caste groupings causing irreversible damage to the social fabric of the state,” state BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpai said. The BJP also took potshots at the ruling Samajwadi Party and the main opposition Bahujan Samaj Party in the state, saying that the court order against caste rallies was like a slap on the face of these political parties who were busy holding caste rallies in the state. Bajpai recalled the rather derogatory ‘tilak-tarazu aur talwaar’ slogan that BSP had coined to outwit its political opponents by blatantly playing up the caste angle and singled out Samajwadi Party’s “unabashed display of minority angle” to slam the two regional players.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/UttarPradesh/BJP-welcomes-HC-order-against-caste-rallies-appeals-for-caste-census-ban/Article1-1091041.aspx

[beetle]

People behind bars can't contest polls, rules SC person, who is in jail or in police custody, cannot contest election to legislative bodies, the Supreme Court has held, bringing an end to an era of undertrial politicians fighting polls from behind bars. In another pathbreaking verdict to prevent criminal elements from entering Parliament and state assemblies, the apex court ruled that only an "elector" can contest the polls and he/she ceases the right to cast vote due to confinement in prison or being in custody of police. The court, however, made it clear that disqualification would not be applicable to person subjected to preventive detention under any law. Referring to the Representation of Peoples' Act, a bench of justices AK Patnaik and SJ Mukhopadhayay said that the Act (Section 4 & 5) lays down the qualifications for membership of the House of the People and Legislative Assembly and one of the qualifications laid down is that he must be an elector. The bench said Section 62(5) of the Act says that no person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or is in the lawful custody of the police. Reading Sections 4, 5 and 62(5) together, the apex court came to the conclusion that a person in jail or police custody cannot contest election. The court passed the order on a appeal filed by the Chief Election Commissioner and others challenging a Patna High Court order barring people in police custody to contest polls. "We do not find any infirmity in the findings of the High Court in the impugned common order that a person who has no right to vote by virtue of the provisions of sub-section (5) of Section 62 of the 1951 Act is not an elector and is therefore not qualified to contest the election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of a State," the apex court said. In a landmark judgement on Wednesday, the same bench had struck down a provision in the the Representation of Peoples Act that protects a convicted lawmaker from disqualification on the ground of pendency of appeal in higher courts. The bench had also made it clear that MPs, MLAs and MLCs would stand disqualified on the date of conviction. Legal experts said the two verdicts will force political parties to make sure that candidates facing criminal charges are not fielded. The court had in its yesterday's judgement held that Parliament exceeded its powers by enacting the provision (Section 8(4) of the Representation of Peoples Act) that gives a convicted lawmaker the power to remain in office on the ground that appeals have been filed and pending. The sub-section 8(4), which was struck down, said a lawmaker cannot be disqualified for three months from the conviction and if in that period he or she files an appeal against till its disposal by a higher court. http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/People-behind-bars-can-t-contest-polls-rules-SC/Article1-1091005.aspx

[someone]

Some good moves done by courts. It's gonna make our politics a bit more cleaner for a while. Yet, it would still remain dirty while parties create new ways to counter this move.