Paid news: EC moots 2-yr jail term

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 28

In a bid to end poll-time corruption, the Election Commission has mooted making paid news an electoral offence punishable with two years in prison and also including it as a corrupt practice under the election law to enable disqualification of a candidate.

The commission has further proposed making bribery of voters a cognizable offence under the Indian Penal Code and placing a cap on the election expenditures of political parties. Currently only individual candidate expenses are capped.

To discuss these electoral reform proposals, the commission has called a meeting of all political party representatives on March 30 in the capital. The all party meet will debate ways of political financing of parties and the possibility of arriving at a consensus to cap their expenditure and cap the upper limit for annual donations a party can receive. The EC has circulated a paper to parties before the meet.

A major agenda item for the meeting is making paid news a corrupt practice under Section 123 of the Representation of People’s Act (RPA), 1951 and separately an electoral offence that would attract minimum two years in prison. The EC will also discuss with parties state funding of elections and take their views on the possibility of conducting simultaneous state and Lok Sabha polls.

So far as paid news goes, it it is included as a corrupt practice (under Section 123 RPA). it can lead to disqualification of the candidate and setting aside of his election.

The EC has in the background paper referred to Law Commission’s earlier recommendation to make paid news punishable with two years imprisonment and publication of news in exchange for consideration of money be considered “misconduct” under Section 123, RPA.

On bribery, the Law Commission had said it should be made a cognizable offence under the IPC – a matter which the Government is seized of. So far as capping the expenses of political parties goes, the current law is vague on it. Congress sources today said the suggestion was bound to attract comprehensive debate. “We are yet to formulate our stand on the paper the EC has circulated,” said a Congress leader.

EC’s proposal to cap poll expenditures of parties comes after the 2014 Lok Sabha election in which the campaign of the then BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi attracted several poll petitions.

At present, Section 77, RPA, deals with poll expenses of candidates and leaves scope for nearly limitless party expenses. It says, “The expenditure incurred by leaders of a political party on account of travel by air or by any other means of transport for propagating programme of the political party shall not be deemed to be the expenditure in connection with the election incurred or authorised by a candidate of that political party or his election agent for the purposes of this sub-section.”