SC notice to Centre, EC on fresh plea against freebies during elections

The Supreme Court has sought response from the Centre and the the Election Commission on a fresh plea against the practice of political parties promising freebies during elections.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notices to the Union of India and the poll panel on a petition filed by Bengaluru resident Shashank J Sreedhara.

The petition filed by advocate Srinivasan has also sought a direction to poll panel to take effective steps to restrain political parties from making promises of freebies during the pre-election period.

"The unregulated promise of freebies imposes a significant and unaccounted financial burden on the public exchequer. Further, there exists no mechanism to ensure the fulfilment of pre-poll promises on which votes were secured," the plea said.

The top court tagged the matter with other pleas on similar issue.

The apex court had earlier agreed to list for hearing pleas against the practice of political par