A social activist in Goa has urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ask the candidates to declare in their affidavits that they are not partners/directors/shareholders/transport contractors/sub-contractors of any of the mining leases. He has said that the candidates in Goa, married under the Portuguese Civil Code (PCC), must file the assets and liability details of their spouses too in their affidavits as provisions of PCC are applicable to all such couples. The PCC, still prevalent in this erstwhile Portuguese colony and applicable to marriages of people of Goan origin, mandates that both the spouses have distinct and equal share in the “communion of property” and as such have to compulsorily file their returns of business income by dividing the shares equally.
The activist, Kashinath Shetye, in his letter addressed to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Goa said that Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act (Disqualification for dismissal for corruption or disloyalty) regarding government contracts for the disqualification of candidates read along with the provisions of PCC regarding family assets and incomes of Goan couples, the provisions of mining leases given by the government to private sector in Goa and the provisions of the Contract Act,1952 would have very wide implications for many of the candidates in Goa.
He said that the law requires that a candidate should not have any interest in any government contract and even if a partner has an interest, it is sufficient to attract the provisions of Section 9A. Mr. Shetye, an RTI activist known to take up public interest litigations, said the affidavit of a candidate should have assets and liabilities of both spouses married under the PCC as both of them have to compulsorily file their returns of business income by dividing the shares equally as per the provisions of PCC.
