An manifesto is a promise, an offer and as per Section 10 of the law of contract, 1872 anyone making a contract is estopped from denying the promise made and could be made accountable to it.
An older SC judgment in Motilal Padampat Sugar Mills Co. Ltd. versus the State of Uttar Pradesh and Ors (1978) stated that if the promisor makes a promise and the promisee acted on the hope given by such promise, then the government who is the promisor will be held responsible, even if there is no consideration or a formal contract. This decision was backed by Article 299 of the Constitution of India.
Election manifesto by political parties, the politicians of several political parties have made promises in their manifestos and have failed to fulfill them post their election. This made people wary of such promises and created a lack of trust.
There have been a plethora of judgments on election manifestos and the associated practices by the politicians. For instance:
High Court Tamil Nadu W.P.(MD). No.18733 of 2020 in M.Chandramohan (M/48/2020) vs. The Secretary
Held: Gave a list of 19 questions which funneled to a contention that:
The political parties must refrain from giving exaggerated promises as it may burden the public money kept in state funds, during times of financial distress. It also agreed that not all promises are corrupt, but many are and so guidelines must be given by the election commission of India to form a model code of conduct based on the SC court decision on S.Subramaniam Balaji vs. State of Tamil Nadu and Others reported in (2013) 9 Supreme Court Cases 659.
