What is Forfeiture of Bail?, What is Jamanat Jabt Bail, What is Forfeiture of Bail?
India is considered to be the largest democracy in the whole world. In order to run the democratic system of the country, elections are usually held at an interval of 5 years. The candidates who are standing in the elections have to give some important documents with the Election Commission about their qualification, income, marital status, etc.
What is a bail amount?
According to the Representation of People Act, 1951 section 34 (1), while filling the election papers, a security amount of 10 thousand rupees to contest elections for ‘Parliamentary constituency’ and Vidhan Sabha Constituency ) To fight elections, an amount of 5 thousand rupees has to be deposited.
The SC / ST candidate has to deposit only half the amount for both these elections. So this amount deposited with the Election Commission is called bail in the election.
What is forfeiture of bail?
The Representation of People Act, 1951 section 158, describes the methods of refunding the amount deposited by the candidates. Among these methods, there is a method which decides which candidate’s bail amount will be forfeited.
Actually the rule is that if a candidate has total valid votes cast in a Constituency
If the sixth part or less than 1/6 of the number of votes is received, then its bail is considered forfeited. That is, the amount of 10 thousand or 5000 or any other amount deposited by this candidate with the Election Commission will not be returned to him, that is, the amount deposited in the Commission. This is called forfeiture of the candidate’s bail.
For example, if there is 1 lakh voting in any assembly seat, then to save the bail, each candidate will have to take more than the sixth part i.e. more than 16 thousand 666 votes.
In which situation is the bail amount refunded?
- CANDIDATE is not shown in the list of contesting candidates, that is, either his ENROLLMENT was rejected or after his ENROLLMENT was accepted, he has withdrawn his candidature. Or
- CANDIDATE dies before polling begins; Or
- He wins the election; Or
- He is not elected, but receives more than 1/6 of the total valid votes polled by all candidates in the election.
- Even if CANDIDATE wins the election but does not get 1/6 of the total valid votes, his / her bail amount is returned.
Yes, there have been many such cases in our country when CANDIDATE is not able to get 1/6 of the total votes even then it is considered to be won because it has got the most votes.
Note: Even if CANDIDATE receives exactly 1 / 6th of the total number of valid votes, the bail is considered forfeited.
This amount is deposited so that only Serious CANDIDATE will contest the election. But this step of the Election Commission is not quite known as the amount of bail is very low and CANDIDATE make his ENROLLMENT and later withdraw his form after withdrawing money from another party.
Conclusion: It can be said that the Election Commission takes several steps towards conducting clean elections in the country. One of these measures is the bail amount deposited before the election.