Just a week after former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Lok Sabha following he was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail in a criminal defamation case, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the provision of automatic disqualification is too drastic.
The comment was made during the hearing of two petitions relating to the disqualification of convicted lawmakers by a bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna. After Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj told the court that as per Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, any lawmaker is automatically disqualified following conviction with imprisonment for two or more years, the court said that this provision is drastic, and courts should be careful in awarding sentences to convicted lawmakers.
Justice KM Joseph said, “But this section is very drastic.. that is why you have to be careful thinking about sentence. If it’s 14 years.. then imagine after another 6 years…” He was referring to the provision in the section according to which such a lawmaker remains disqualified from contesting polls for six years after release from jail.
Justice Nagarathna: there cannot be a different rule for a MP MLA and a normal person
— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) March 29, 2023
ASG: Under 8(3) of the RPA.. it leads to automatic disqualification
Justice Joseph: but the section is very drastic.. that is why you have to be careful thinking about sentences.. if it's 14…
The court was hearing a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and (former) Lakshadweep MP PP Mohammad Faizal, who filed the plea saying that while his conviction in an attempt to murder case has been suspended, his membership of Lok Sabha bas not been reinstated. However, his disqualification was revoked by the Lok Sabha secretariate yesterday hours before the plea was heard by the court, and therefore Faizal’s lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the petition can be disposed of by the court.
The second plea was filed by Lakshadweep administration challenging the Kerala High Court order suspending PP Mohammad Faizal’s conviction and 10 years jail sentence on the charges of attempt to murder.
Mohammed Faizal was convicted by the sessions court in Kavaratti on January 11, 2023. The NCP MP was sentenced 10-year jail term. Following this, the Lok Sabha Secretariat issued a notification announcing MP Faizal’s disqualification.
the Nationalist Congress Party MP along with three others was convicted for attempting to murder Mohammed Salih, the son-in-law of former Union Minister and Indian National Congress leader, PM Sayeed. His conviction was stayed by Kerala High Court on January 25.
It is notable that while the Supreme Court is now saying that the provision of automatic disqualification of lawmaker as per Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act is drastic, the same court had removed a provision which prevented such automatic disqualification.
The Representation of Peoples Act earlier had a provision under section 8(4) which had said that if the convicted lawmaker appeals against the conviction, such a lawmaker will not be disqualified. But the Supreme Court of India had struck down this provision in 2013.
While hearing the Lily Thomas versus Union of India case, the Supreme Court in July 2013 struck down section 8(4) of the RPA, 1951 and declared it ultra vires, and held that the disqualification takes place from the date of conviction. Therefore, as section 8(4) has been removed by the Supreme Court, there is no protection from disqualification according to ‘drastic’ section 8(3) of the act despite filing an appeal.
It is notable that the UPA-II government at that time had tried to overturn this judgement by bringing an amendment, and an ordinance was also issued to make it applicable immediately. But Rahul Gandhi had objected to this amendment, called it a nonsense, and had trashed it in front of the media. The amendment was withdrawn after this public humiliation of the Manmohan Singh government by its own leader.
