The Supreme Court today ruled that a returning officer can reject nomination papers of a candidate for non-disclosure and suppression of information, including that of assets and their criminal background.

The apex court said that voters have fundamental right to know about their candidates and leaving columns blank in the nomination paper, amounts to violation of their right. A Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said that the power of the Returning Officer for rejecting nomination papers must be exercised.

The Court passed the judgement on a PIL filed in 2008 by an NGO which detected a trend among candidates of leaving blank columns demanding critical information about them.