New Delhi Feb 16 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Friday directed that all candidates contesting elections must disclose their "sources" of income including those of their spouse and dependent children.
In a landmark judgement a bench headed by Justice J. Chelameswar said the candidate has to disclose his his wife s and dependent children s source of income when they file nomination for elections.
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 the candidates while filing their nomination papers were disclosing their assets assets of their spouse children and other dependents but they were not revealing the sources of 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.
--IANS
gt/in
