CONVICTED LAWMAKERS TO LOSE MEMBERSHIP: SC

•  In a landmark judgment that has the potential to cleanse Parliament and assemblies of criminals in a big way, the Supreme Court has held that from now on MPs, MLAs and MLCs would automatically lose their membership if sentenced to jail for not less than two years by the trial court.

 THE RULING:

• Parliament has exceeded its powers conferred by the Constitution in enacting Sub-Section (4) of Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, that protected the sitting lawmakers against immediate disqualification upon conviction
• The provision is ultra vires the Constitution as Articles 101(3)(a) and 190(3)(a) of the Constitution expressly prohibits Parliament to defer the date from which the disqualification will come into effect in case of sitting members
• MPs, MLAs and MLCs will now automatically lose their membership, if sentenced to jail for not less than two years by the trial court
• Terrorism, smuggling, drug trafficking, hoarding and crimes under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and Foreign Exchange (Regulation) Act would also attract disqualification, irrespective of the period of sentence.
•  The verdict will, however, not affect convicted legislators who have already filed appeals against their conviction

WHO CAN DISQUALIFY LEGISLATORS?

• Since the provision that has been quashed relates to the Representation of the People Act, the disqualification of convicted legislators will be ordered by the Election Commission of India.
•  Speaker has power to disqualify a member only on the grounds of defection.
• According to a survey, as many as 162 sitting MPs and 1,460 MLAs are facing criminal charges. To rid politics of criminals, the Supreme Court has withdrawn the benefit of a pending appeal to convicted lawmakers prospectively. The judgment, which has far-reaching implications, has struck down a provision in the Representation of the People Act allowing a convicted MP or MLA three months time to file an appeal and stick to his post until its final disposal, which usually took years. A convicted politician cannot contest elections for six years after a jail term, if any. This is the second major initiative to clean up electoral politics. In a ruling on June 3 the Central Information Commission had brought political parties under the Right to Information Act, thus forcing them to share information about, among other things, sources of their funding. The use of unaccounted money in elections and the presence of criminals in Parliament and assemblies are two major challenges to the growth of healthy democratic practices in the country.