EC’s silence on barring convicted MPs, MLAs for life draws SC ire.

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission drew the Supreme Court's ire on Wednesday due to its silence on the critical issue of decriminalisation of politics — whether convicted MPs and MLAs should be barred from contesting elections for life?

The court also wondered whether the EC's reluctance to give its "free view" was influenced by the Centre's stand against life ban on convicts from contesting polls.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Naveen Sinha read out a portion of the EC's fresh affidavit that said it supported "the cause espoused by" petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay, who has sought setting up of special courts for speedy trial of criminal cases faced by elected representatives.

He also said those convicted should be "uniformly barred from the legislature, the executive and the judiciary".