New Delhi, Oct 16 The Supreme Court on Friday held that private citizens can file criminal complaints against elected candidates for furnishing false information or concealing material facts in election affidavits under the Representation of the People (RoP) Act.
The top court said the restriction under Section 195 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) will not come in the way of filing a complaint in such cases.
Section 195 of the CrPC restricts criminal courts from taking direct cognisance of certain specific offences unless a written complaint is formally filed by the authorised public servant or the concerned court.
“We hold that a private complaint alleging offence committed under Section 125A, RoP Act need not pass muster of the rigours of Section 195 CrPC as held by the High Court.
If at all a complaint is lodged to harass an elected candidate or frivolous allegations are levelled therein, the laws of the country duly equip and empower the competent magistrates to pass such order(s) as they deem fit and proper commensurate with the facts and circumstances of each case,” a bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu said.
Section 125A of the RoP Act penalises candidates who provide false information, conceal details, or fail to submit mandatory disclosures in their election nomination papers or affidavits.
The judgment was delivered while disposing of an appeal filed by Rajkumar Madki against a Karnataka High Court judgment dated March 7, 2025, which quashed his criminal complaint against Shailendra Beldale, an elected member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the Bidar constituency.
Madki had alleged that Beldale furnished a false declaration regarding his residential address in an affidavit accompanying his nomination papers for the 2023 assembly election.
He had lodged a private complaint under Section 200 of the CrPC before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Bengaluru, alleging an offence punishable under Section 125A of the RoP Act.
The Karnataka High Court quashed the complaint, saying that proceedings for the alleged offence could be initiated only through a complaint by the Election Commission, and that a voter could pursue an election petition rather than institute such a private criminal complaint.
“The legislature is presumed to be conscious of its insertion of Section 125A in the RoP Act four years back,” the judgment said, adding that the non-inclusion of Section 125A within Section 195 must be treated as deliberate.
The verdict further held that the absence of any other statutory provision restricting the filing of such complaints to public servants, coupled with the language of Section 125A of the RoP Act, supported the conclusion that a private complaint was legally maintainable.
Despite settling the legal question in favour of the maintainability of private complaints, the verdict declined to revive the proceedings against Beldale.
(PTI News)
