Supreme Court’s order weighs down heavily upon Kejriwal — Check out how many AAP MLAs have criminal cases

• Supreme Court order political parties to detail the criminal history of the candidates nominated by them on their official websites and justify why they have given them a seat.
• The court says the candidates’ ability to win the elections is not grounds for them to run for a seat.
• Arvind Kejriwal is now under pressure to justify the large number of MLAs who won the 2020 Delhi Assembly election and also have a history of criminal convictions.

Alarmed by the growing concerns over the criminalization of politics, the Supreme Court has mandated political parties to upload the criminal history of their candidates on their respective official websites.

The county’s apex has given parties a deadline 72 hours to issue a full list of candidates that are contesting the elections — and also have a criminal record — to poll bodies. In addition, the parties must justify why they have given a seat to someone with a criminal background.

In the court’s opinion, the candidates’ ability to win elections is not a valid justification to field them as candidates — popularity is not reason enough for grounds to ignore criminal convictions.

When a party decides to field a candidate with a record, they will have 48 hours to ensure that his criminal history is published on the party website, social media and newspapers.

The court’s verdict follows the filing of contempt petitions by Ashwin Kumar Upadhyay and others. If a party fails to adhere to the directive, they will be held in contempt of court.

Statistics show that more than 50% of the AAP MLAs winning in the Delhi Assembly Elections 2020 have serious criminal cases against them.

The court’s order now weighs down heavily upon Arvind Kejriwal, the AAP leader and the sitting CM of Delhi. He must now justify why his party has chosen the candidates with criminal cases to contest in the recent assembly elections.

Checkout The Statistics of AAP MLAs with criminal convictions against them

Number of AAP MLAs in 2020 Delhi Assembly Elections	MLAs with declared criminal cases	% of MLAs with declared criminal cases	MLAs with declared serious criminal cases	% of MLAs with declared serious criminal cases
62	38	61%	33	53%

Analysis Based on the Assets of the AAP MLAs in Delhi in 2020 elections

Number of AAP MLAs in 2020 Delhi Assembly Elections	Number of MLAs who have declared themselves as crorepatis	% of MLAs declared as crorepatis	Average assets of 62 MLAs
62	45	73%	Rs. 14 crore plus

List of AAP MLAs Elected in 2020 Delhi Assembly Elections with criminal convictions

Sl. No.	Name of the AAP MLA with criminal charges	Details of criminal charges
1	Amanatullah Khan (Constituency: OKHLA)	Total Cases: 12 Serious IPC:11 Other IPC: 32 Cases (Pending)
2	Shoaib Iqbal (Constituency: MATIA MAHAL)	Total Cases: 6 Serious IPC:6 Other IPC: 29 Cases (Pending)
3	Akhilesh Pati Tripathi (Constituency: MODEL TOWN)	Total Cases: 4 Serious IPC:5 Other IPC: 11 Cases (Pending)
4	Sanjeev Jha (Constituency: BURARI)	Total Cases: 3 Serious IPC:5 Other IPC: 15 Cases (Pending)
5	Abdul Rehman (Constituency: SEELAMPUR)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC:5 Other IPC: 11 Cases (Pending)
6	Somnath Bharti (Constituency: MALVIYA NAGAR)	Total Cases: 6 Serious IPC:4 Other IPC: 27 Cases (Pending)
7	Surendra Kumar (Constituency: GOKALPUR)	Total Cases: 4 Serious IPC:4 Other IPC: 6 Cases (Pending)
8	Prakash (Constituency: DEOLI)	Total Cases: 3 Serious IPC:4 Other IPC: 17 Cases (Pending)
9	Rajesh Rishi (Constituency: JANAKPURI)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC: 4" "Other IPC:12 Cases (Pending)
10	Naresh Yadav (Constituency: MEHRAULI)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC:4 Other IPC: 6 Cases (Pending)
11	Arvind Kejriwal (Constituency: NEW DELHI)	Total Cases: 13 Serious IPC:3 Other IPC: 27 Cases (Pending)
12	Gulab Singh (Constituency: MATIALA)	Total Cases: 11 Serious IPC:3 Other IPC: 4 Cases (Pending)
13	Sahiram (Constituency: TUGHLAKABAD)	Total Cases: 3 Serious IPC:3 Other IPC: 7 Cases (Pending)
14	Jai Bhagwan (Constituency: BAWANA)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC:3 Other IPC: 5 Cases (Pending)
15	Haji Yunus (Constituency: MUSTAFABAD)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC:3 Other IPC: 1 Cases (Pending)
16	Rituraj Govind (Constituency: KIRARI)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC:2 Other IPC: 14 Cases (Pending)
17	Dilip Pandey (Constituency: TIMARPUR)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC:2 Other IPC: 2 Cases (Pending)
18	Mohinder Goyal (Constituency: RITHALA)	Total Cases:1 Serious IPC:2 Other IPC:1 Cases (Pending)
19	Rakhi Birla (Constituency: MANGOL PURI)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC:2 Other IPC: 1 Cases (Pending)
20	Sharad Kumar (Constituency: NARELA)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC:2 Other IPC: 1 Cases (Pending)
21	Manish Sisodia (Constituency: PATPARGANJ)	Total Cases: 3 Serious IPC:1 Other IPC: 12 Cases (Pending)
22	Pramila Tokas (Constituency: R K PURAM)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC:1 Other IPC: 5 Cases (Pending)
23	Jarnail Singh (Constituency: TILAK NAGAR)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC:1 Other IPC:4 Cases (Pending)
24	Dinesh Mohaniya (Constituency: SANGAM VIHAR)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC:1 Other IPC:2 Cases (Pending)
25	Madan Lal (Constituency: KASTURBA NAGAR)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC:1 Other IPC:13 Cases (Pending)
26	S. K. Bagga (Constituency: KRISHNA NAGAR)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC: 1 Other IPC: 0 Cases (Pending)
27	Praveen Kumar (Constituency: JANGPURA)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC:1 Other IPC:10 Cases (Pending)
28	Ajay Dutt (Constituency: AMBEDKAR NAGAR)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC:1 Other IPC: 10 Cases (Pending)
29	Raghuvinder Shokeen (Constituency: NANGLOI JAT)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC: 1 Other IPC:1 Cases (Pending)
30	Raaj Kumar Anand (Constituency: PATEL NAGAR)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC: 1 Other IPC:3 Cases (Pending)
31	Som Dutt (Constituency: SADAR BAZAR)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC: 1 Other IPC: 0 Cases (Pending)
32	Rajesh Gupta (Constituency: WAZIRPUR)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC:1 Other IPC:10 Cases (Pending)
33	Gopal Rai (Constituency: BABARPUR)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC:1 Other IPC:3 Cases (Pending)
34	Pawan Sharma (Constituency: ADARSH NAGAR)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC: 0 Other IPC:2 Cases (Pending)
35	Satyendar Jain (Constituency: SHAKUR BASTI)	Total Cases: 2 Serious IPC: 0 Other IPC:2 Cases (Pending)
36	Dharampal Lakra (Constituency: MUNDKA)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC: 0 Other IPC: 0 Cases (Pending)
37	Atishi Marlena (Constituency: KALKAJI)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC: 0 Other IPC:1 Cases (Pending)
38	Ram Niwas Goel (Constituency: SHAHDARA)	Total Cases: 1 Serious IPC: 0 Other IPC:1 Cases (Pending)

In September 2018, a constitution bench consisting of five judges recommended that the central government enact laws immediately to ban those involved in serious crimes from contesting the elections and being selected as party officials. Ashwini Upadhyay, BJP leader and lawyer has now filed a contempt petition that no serious efforts have been taken to stop the criminalization of politics even after the court order.