Supreme Court seeks details of money seized by EC during 2014, 2019 polls

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to furnish details of cash seized during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It also wanted a status report of the complete list of cases of unaccounted cash lodged by the Election Commission.

A Bench of Justices N.V. Ramana and M. Shantanagouder gave this direction on an appeal by Karnataka government challenging a high court order setting aside the case registered by the EC against a Bellary-based businessman.

Unaccounted cash or valuables and suspect items being seized by the commission’s officials are a regular occurrence during elections. But what happens once a seizure is made — are the accused caught and the case resolved? the Bench wanted to examine this aspect. The EC informed the court that a total of 4,937 cases of illegal seizures were lodged during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In the previous hearings, the Bench expressed its displeasure when neither the EC nor the Centre gave adequate information in this regard. The commission claimed that their job ends with the registration of the FIR, while the Centre maintained that during Lok Sabha polls, they follow a hands-off approach. The matter has to be then pursued by the respective state governments which seldom have any interest to punish the offenders.