Supreme Court Rejects Petition On Gap For Civil Servants To Contest Elections
NDTV
The plea said that civil servants/judges often have access to sensitive and confidential information during their tenure and allowing immediate transition to a political role may raise concerns about the misuse of privileged information for personal or party gain.
The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea seeking implementation of the 2012 recommendations of the Election Commission regarding the cooling-off period to prevent public servants from contesting polls immediately after retirement or resignation.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Sandeep Mehta allowed petitioner G V Harsha Kumar, a former parliamentarian, to withdraw the plea with liberty to approach the appropriate authority.
The plea had sought directions to the EC and the Centre to implement the 2012 recommendations of the poll panel and the July 2004 report of the Committee on Civil Service Reforms to prevent government servants from contesting elections to the legislature, parliament or state assembly on a political party ticket, immediately after retirement or resignation from service, by imposing a cooling-off period.
