New Delhi: The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement, has directed that candidates contesting elections must disclose their source of income, including their spouses and children.
The judgement was given by a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar, one of the four judges who came out openly against the Chief justice of India and had said that there is an immediate need to protect the judicial system in the country in order to protect democracy.
The court verdict came on a petition filed by NGO, Lok Prahari, which has sought the inclusion of a column in the nomination form seeking details of income sources.
The petitioner has claimed that candidates reveal their assets and the assets of their families however, they don’t reveal the ‘source’ of their income.
As per the law, at present a candidate is required to disclose details of assets and liabilities for themselves, spouse and three dependents while filing nomination paper but not their source of income.
Earlier, during the hearing of the case the apex court had criticised the government for not investigating the huge increase in assets, by up to 500 per cent, of politicians from what they show at the time of nomination.
The Election Commission had also told the top court in January that it must be made mandatory for the candidates to disclose their sources of income along with that of their spouse and dependents at the time of filing nomination to bring transparency in the election process.
