ADR organised a webinar on "Institutional Laxity towards Increasing Criminality in Indian Legislature" on 25th October 2021.  

Focus points:  

1. Discussion (esp. highlighting the key findings) on ADR's report on "Analysis of MPs/MLAs who have declared criminal cases where the charges have been framed under Section 8(1) (2) & (3) of the R.P Act,1951"

2. Why are candidates against whom ‘charges have been framed by the court’ for committing serious criminal offences punishable by imprisonment of at least 5 years, and the case is filed at least 6 months prior to the election in question not disqualified?

3. Why institutions are failing to permanently disqualify elected representatives with heinous crimes such as rape, murder, dacoity etc?

4. How to curb the increasing criminality in Indian politics?

5. Why are political parties disregarding the Supreme Court's orders?

6. Why do political parties give tickets to candidates with criminal cases especially with serious criminal cases?

7. Why do voters vote for candidates with criminal cases against themselves? How to reverse this trend?  8. ADR's recommendations

This is Part 1 of the audio extracted from the webinar. Link

Moderator: Prof Trilochan Sastry, Founder Member, Chairman and Trustee of ADR

Speakers:

1. Dr Nasim Zaidi, Former Chief Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India

2. Dr K.V.K. Santhy, Associate Professor at NALSAR

3. Ms Poonam Agarwal, Editor-Investigations, The Quint