Affidavit (Form 26)

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• (Affdavit Form 26)

(a) Along with the nomination paper, a candidate is required to file an affidavit in Form 26. The affidavit should be sworn before a Magistrate of the First Class or before a Notary Public or a Commissioner of Oaths appointed by the High Court of the State concerned. The duly sworn affidavits should be on stamp paper of such denomination as prescribed under the state law of the state concerned.

(b) While supplying forms of nomination papers the Returning officer will attach to nomination form a copy of Form 26 appended to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. No column of the affidavit should be left blank or filled by just tick/dash marking. If the information asked for in a column is Nil or not applicable or not known to the candidate then he should write 'Nil' or 'Not applicable' in that column [The Hon’ble Supreme Court has held that in the affidavits filed by candidate along with their nomination paper, the candidates are required to fill up all columns therein and no column can be left blank. Therefore, at the time of filing of affidavit, RO has to check whether all columns of the affidavit filed with the nomination paper are filled up. If not, the RO shall give a reminder in prescribed checklist to the candidate to furnish information against blank columns. The candidate must submit a revised affidavit with columns duly filled up before the commencement of scrutiny of nominations, failing which the nomination paper will be liable to be rejected. The Hon’ble Court has further held that if there is no information to be furnished against any item, appropriate remarks such as ‘NIL’ or ‘Not Applicable’ or ‘Not Known’ as may be applicable shall be indicated in such column. They should not leave any column blank. If a candidate fails to fill the blanks even after reminder, the nomination paper will be liable to be rejected by the RO at the time of scrutiny of nomination papers.]

(c) Item 5 of Part A and Part B of the revised Form 26 (Appendix VIA and VIB) relates to information regarding criminal antecedents to be furnished by the candidates. In item (5) (ii) of the Part A & Part B of Form-26 the details of all pending cases in which cognizance has been taken by the Court, irrespective of the quantum of punishment or framing of charges will have to be disclosed by the candidate.

(d) Copies of the affidavits will be displayed in the premises of a public place within the constituency freely accessible to the general public. Displaying copies on the Returning Officer’s notice board will be done in all cases, even if the office is outside the boundary of the constituency.

(e) Up loading Affidavits filed by candidates in the web site:

The affidavit filed by all candidates, whether set up by the recognized political parties or unrecognized political parties or independents will be put up on the website soon after the candidates files the same and within 24 hours in any event. Even if any candidate withdraws his candidature, the affidavit already uploaded on the website shall not be removed.

(f) Up loading counter Affidavits in the web site:

As per the directions in the Commission’s order No. 3/ER/2003/JS-II, dated 27-03-2003, the affidavits filed by candidates were to be disseminated by displaying copies thereof on the notice board of the Returning Officer and by making copies available freely to those seeking the same. In the said order, it was also directed that if anyone furnishes information countering the statements made by any candidate in his affidavit by means of a duly sworn affidavit, such counter affidavit shall also be disseminated along with the affidavit of the candidate concerned in the same manner, i.e. by displaying copy on the notice board and furnishing copies to others on demand. The Commission has decided that, all counter affidavits (duly notarized) filed by any person against the statements in the affidavit filed by the candidate shall also be uploaded on the website along with the affidavit concerned. Such uploading should also be done within 24 hours of filing of the same.

(g) Publishing information on government dues:

The information furnished by the contesting candidates in relation to the Government dues to the five departments mentioned in item(8)(ii) &(iii)of the affidavit will be published by the Returning Officers concerned in at least two newspapers having local circulation ,one of which should be a vernacular newspaper. This should be published by the Returning Officer within two days after preparing the list of contesting candidates. If there is more than one constituency in a District, the District Election Officer will publish the above information in a consolidated form in respect of all constituencies (constituency wise) in that district. When the information on Govt. dues is published in the Newspaper, there will be a note added therein mentioning the places where the other details viz.(criminal background, assets, liabilities and education qualification of all the contesting candidates can be found. The note will also mention that the affidavit can be viewed on the website of the CEO and path to the website will also be mentioned.