Sir,
In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court of India has said that MPs, MLAs will be disqualified on the date of conviction.The apex court ,in response to Article 101(3) (a) and 190(3) (a) of the constitution of India,discussed about the issue of disqualification of MPs,MLAs, and MLCs,from the date of his/her conviction.It has been made clear in the worthy judgement that those lawmakers, who have filed appeals or revisions and are pending, do not come under this provision.
Section 8 of the RP Act deals with the issue of disqualification of MPs/MLAs/MLCs in case he/ she is convicted for certain offences that may lead to more than two years of imprisonment.
We have many cases in which politicians,being behind the bars,would contest elections. Not only politicians, even some leaders with serious criminal background would fight the polls.
Now the present judgement would debar such persons from contesting polls.It is no doubt, a welcome judgement from our apex court .Our Chief Election Commissioner has hailed the Supreme Court judgement,and has rightly said that such a step would cleanse the electoral process.
It is said that out of 4032 sitting MLAs from all state assemblies,31% i.e, 1258 have declared criminal cases against themselves, and, surprisingly,15% of them have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.Bihar tops the list of our states where more than 50% MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves. Not only Bihar ,except a few states, others have many MLAs and MPs with criminal background.
So, the present landmark judgement of the apex court would go a long way in cleaning the electoral process and would allow clean persons, with Zero criminal backgrounds to contest elections and become people’s representatives in the respective Assemblies and Lok Sabha.
Yours etc…..
Basant Autar
Vinayak Nagar
Muthi.
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