When a candidate looses his Security Deposit

This morning, while reading the daily newspaper, I noticed news which mentioned that during the current Lok Sabha Elections, as many as 1155 out 1368 candidates, who were in fray in 80 constituencies from Uttar Pradesh, lost their security deposits.

We all know about this term ‘Security Deposit’ but very few know what does it mean and what are the terms and conditions when a candidate looses his security deposit.

I was more curious because I found that many stalwarts from UP have lost their security deposits. Therefore, I thought to explore a little on what it is all about.

So what does it mean by Security Deposit?
Each candidate has to deposit a certain amount as a security deposit at the time of filing papers for an election.

For Lok Sabha Election:
As per Section 34 1 (a) of R. P. Act, 1951, every candidate is required to make a security deposit of Rs. 10,000/- (Rupees Ten Thousand Only) for Lok Sabha elections. A candidate belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe is required to make a security deposit of Rs. 5,000 (Rupees Five Thousand Only).

For Assembly Election:
As per Sec. 34 (1) (b) of the R. P. Act 1951, a general candidate for contesting an Assembly election will have to make a security deposit of Rs. 5,000/-. A candidate belonging to Scheduled Caste / Tribe will have to make a security deposit of Rs. 2,500/- (Two Thousand and Five Hundred Only).
The amount deposited will either be returned back to the depositor or forfeited to the Government of India according to some conditions.
Following are the conditions when the amount would be returned back to the candidate

• The candidate lost the polls but secured 1/6th (and at least one more vote) of the total number of valid votes polled in that election.
• The candidate has won the election.
• The candidate has won the election even if he/she has not secured 1/6th of the total valid votes.

Apart from this there are other general conditions in which security deposit is refunded to the candidate. For ex. if his nomination paper are found to be invalid, if he takes his name back etc.