Poll candidates must disclose income source, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the candidates contesting must declare source of their incoming along with their spouses and dependent children.

The ruling was made by a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar to keep a tab on the growth of their assets while hearing to the petition filed by a NGO Lok Prahari.

The Apex Court also ruled that if a candidate does not declare his assets he will not be allowed to contest.

The general secretary of the NGO S N Shukla in its petition had contended that candidates while filing their nomination papers, declared their assets, assets of their spouse, children and other dependents. But, the did not reveal the source of income.

Shukla had sought for a direction from the Supreme Court to include a column in the nomination form to list details of income source. Till now, the candidates while filing a nomination had to only give details of their and their dependents asset details.

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Earlier this week Central Board of Direct Taxes had informed the court that in their preliminary investigations they have found that “huge increases in assets of Lok Sabha MPs’ and substantial increases in assets of MLA.”