Plea In Supreme Court Challenges Auto-Disqualification Of Convicted MPs
NDTV
The Surat court sentenced Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail on Thursday in a defamation case filed on a complaint from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Purnesh Modi.
A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the "automatic disqualification" of lawmakers upon their conviction and being sentenced to a jail term for two years or more according to section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act.
The plea, filed by a Kerala-based social activist, said the immediate reason for approaching the top court was a recent development related to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's disqualification as a member of Parliament from the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, after he was convicted by a court in Gujarat's Surat in a 2019 criminal defamation case.
The petitioner, Aabha Muralidharan, has sought a declaration that the automatic disqualification under section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 is ultra vires the Constitution for being "arbitrary" and "illegal".
The petition has claimed that an automatic disqualification of people's representatives of elected legislative bodies restrains them from "freely discharging their duties cast upon them by the voters of their respective constituencies, which is against the principles of democracy".
