Plea seeks disqualification of all convicted lawmakers, Punjab HC says law requires relook

Source: indianexpress.com

A provision in the Representation of People’s Act,1951, allowing a lawmaker to continue to hold their seat even if convicted and sentenced for a period of less than two years has come under challenge before the Punjab and Haryana High Court which has issued notices to the Union of India and Election Commission of India, and observed that the issue requires scrutiny.

“Prima facie, there appears to be force in the submission made and the issue requires scrutiny,” said a division bench of Chief Justice Krishna Murari and Arun Palli in an order after hearing the PIL filed by Ganesh Khemka, a judicial clerk at the Supreme Court of India.

In the writ petition filed by Khemka through advocate Shreenath A Khemka, it has been contended that the Section 8(3) of the RP Act by segregating the imprisonment terms of less than two years as “non-actionable ground of disqualification” is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. Section 8 (1) and Section 8 (2) provide for disqualification for convictions of particular set of offences but Section 8 (3) provides for disqualification only if the sentence is for a minimum period of two years.

“Therefore, all and any convictions for a term less than 2 years cannot be disqualified. Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s verdict in Lily Thomas v. Union of India & Ors, a disqualification which forecloses a candidate from being chosen as the member of the House will equally apply as a disqualification from holding the membership to the House. As a result, the continuation of Section 8 (3) not only allows a convict to contest elections, but also allows a convicted member of the House to continue to hold his seat while serving his sentence,” it was explained in the plea.

Seeking to read down the Section 8 (3) of the RP Act for electoral qualification of any and all criminal convicts, the plea has said the Supreme Court in various verdicts has already highlighted the perils faced by democracy due to the nexus between criminals and politicians. “The Supreme Court in K. Prabhakaran v. P. Jayarajan has observed that persons with criminal background pollute the process of election as they have no inhibition in indulging in criminality to gain success in an election,” the plea added.