No action taken on code of conduct violation

Bengaluru : The Election Commission has seized crores of money and countless gifts from the day the Code of Conduct was enacted and has also registered a case against the people's representatives. However, after the election, all these cases suddenly fall away. There is no instance of any representative being punished in the cases registered so far.

Including the last 15 assembly elections, not only the Lok Sabha elections, Legislative Council elections, Gram Panchayat, Taluk Panchayat, Zilla Panchayat elections, no one has been punished in the cases registered against the people's representatives related to the violation of the Covid rules.

Thus, electoral irregularities have gone unabated. Non-bailable cases have been registered only for the cases of sowing communal hatred and carrying lethal objects inside the polling station. A bailable case has been registered for all other election irregularities.

The Election Commission will submit a report to the court to confiscate the money and gifts brought to the voters. This litigation goes on in court for years. Government advocates should be presented on behalf of the commission. If there are about 100 cases in a constituency and only one government lawyer argues for all the cases, there will be several lawyers for the accused. Now only the confiscated items are in the court. None of the recipients of the gifts will testify in court. Due to lack of witnesses, the whole case is dismissed.

After the formation of the government, the chances of closing the cases against their party and leaders are high. Apart from this, cases of violation of code of conduct will be registered against the party or activists. If there is a lack of witnesses from the commission at the time of the court hearing, the accused can easily walk away from the cases.'As far as I can see, no MP has been punished for violating the code of conduct. The Special Court of People's Representatives is no exception. So what is the use of such a special court?' Retired Lokayukta Santosh Hegde expressed displeasure.