On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sought responses from the Union government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding the ongoing "tamasha" of political parties promising or distributing "irrational freebies" with public funds.

On a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, represented by senior advocate Vikas Singh, a Bench of Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli issued notice to the Centre and the top poll body to issue stringent guidelines to deregister the errant political parties and seize their election symbols.

“The ‘tamasha’ has been going on for decades. Promises always remain as promises. Most of them, except freebies, are not implemented,” the petition said and contended that the offer of these freebies amounted to bribery and undue influence.

The court, however, expressed skepticism about Mr. Upadhyay's petition, which named only a few, select political parties and states. Mr. Upadhyay stated that he did not intend to target only a few political parties and offered to include all political parties as respondents in the petition.

"This is, without a doubt, a serious problem. The budget for freebies appears to exceed the regular budget... it is not always a level playing field for some parties... What can we do to manage or control this? "The CJI inquired about the legal issues involved in the case.

The court stated that it would begin, for the time being, by serving notice on the Centre and the ECI, who has now been named respondents. After four weeks, the case was scheduled for a hearing. 

Mr. Singh testified during the hearing that parties, even in debt-ridden states, were promising/distributing these freebies to garner votes and create an uneven playing field before the elections.

Mr. Singh called the election commission's freebie guidelines, issued in the aftermath of a Supreme Court decision in the Subramaniam Balaji case, reported in 2013, "toothless."

‘Purity of election process’

"Promise/distribution of irrational freebies from the public fund before election unduly influences the voters, shakes the roots of the free-fair election, disturbs level playing field, vitiates the purity of election process and also violates Articles 14, 162, 266(3) and 282," the plea said. It emphasized how the ECI had met with political parties and issued guidelines mandating that their election manifestos not contain anything contrary to the Model Code of Conduct. The ECI stated that, while the Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Constitution enjoined the State to frame various welfare measures for citizens, and thus there could be no objection to the promise of such welfare measures in election manifestos, political parties should "avoid making promises that are likely to vitiate the purity of the election process or exert undue influence on voters in exercising their franchise." 

The election body had expected poll manifestos to be transparent, level playing field, and credible of promises in the interest of transparency, level playing field, and credibility of promises "reflect the rationale for the promises and, in general, indicate the ways and means to meet the financial requirements for it Voters' trust should be sought only on promises that are likely to be fulfilled ".

Mr. Singh contended that arbitrary promises of irrational freebies violated the ECE's mandate of free and fair elections and that distributing private goods and services from public funds violated the Constitution. 

Political parties arbitrarily promised irrational freebies from public funds rather than promising better rule of law, equal pay for equal work, clean water, equal quality education, quality healthcare, quality infrastructure, speedy justice, free legal aid, citizen charter, judicial charter, efficient police system, effective administrative system, he argued.

"The electoral process is the pivot of democracy. If the integrity of the electoral process is jeopardized, the concept of representation becomes meaningless. The distribution of money and the promise of freebies has reached alarming proportions, with elections being postponed several times "According to the petition.