Necessary to restrict people with tainted image from participating in elections: Supreme Court

Rejecting a plea for an interim bail by 2020 Delhi riots accused and AIMIM candidate Tahir Hussain, the judge emphasised that the people of India should be given a choice to elect people with a clean image.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has said that it is high time that the citizens of the country get a clean India, which means clean politics as well. Justice Pankaj Mithal said it was also 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 elections.

Rejecting a plea for an interim bail by 2020 Delhi riots accused and AIMIM candidate Tahir Hussain, the judge emphasised that the people of India should be given a choice to elect people with clean image and antecedent.

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

In its detailed judgment released on Thursday, Justice Amanullah said he has 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," he said, while granting interim bail to Hussain for a limited period.

In his judgment, Justice Mithal 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," Justice Mithal wrote.

He opined 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," Justice Mithal said.

The judge 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," Justice Mithal said.

Justice Amanullah, on the contrary, 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," he said.

Justice Amanullah pointed out 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 him.

"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," he wrote.

After the split verdict, the matter has been referred to the Chief Justice of India for setting up a larger bench to decide the matter.

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

The High Court, however, had declined to entertain his plea for interim bail from January 14 to February 9 to fight the polls, in view of the gravity of allegations against Hussain.

As many as 53, including Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, were killed during the riots in northeast Delhi in 2020.