Disqualification of convicted representatives in India

On 10 July 2013, the Supreme Court of India, in its judgement of the Lily Thomas v. Union of India case (along with Lok Prahari v. Union of India),^[1] ruled that any Member of Parliament (MP), Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) or Member of a Legislative Council (MLC) who is convicted of a crime and awarded a minimum of two year imprisonment, loses membership of the House with immediate effect. This is in contrast to the earlier position, wherein convicted members held on to their seats until they exhausted all judicial remedy in lower, state and supreme court of India. Further, Section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act, which allowed elected representatives three months to appeal their conviction,^[2] was declared unconstitutional by the bench of Justice A. K. Patnaik and Justice S. J. Mukhopadhaya.^[3]

In an attempt to overturn this decision, the Representation of the People (Second Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013, was introduced into the Rajya Sabha on 30 August by Law Minister Kapil Sibal; by the proposed amendment, representatives would not be disqualified immediately after conviction.^[4] The Indian government also filed a review petition, which the Supreme Court dismissed.^[5] On 24 September, a few days before the fodder scam verdict, the government tried to bring the bill into effect as an ordinance.^[6] However, Rahul Gandhi, Vice-President of the Indian National Congress, made his opinion of the ordinance clear in a press meeting: "It's complete nonsense. It should be torn up and thrown away."^[7] Members of opposition parties claimed that Gandhi's comments indicated total confusion within the government, and called for the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.^[8][9] Within 5 days, both the ordinance and the bill were withdrawn on 2 October.^[10]

On 1 October 2013, Rasheed Masood became the first MP to lose his membership of parliament under the new guidelines, when he was sentenced to four years imprisonment for cheating, forgery and corruption.^[11]

List of elected representatives disqualified after conviction by a court of law

Representative	Party	Representation	Case	Date of conviction	Status
Rasheed Masood	Congress	Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh	convicted for 4 years in MBBS seats scam	September 2013	Disqualified[12]
Lalu Prasad Yadav	RJD	Lok Sabha MP from Saran, Bihar	convicted for 5 years in Fodder scam	September 2013	Disqualified[13]
Jagdish Sharma	RJD	Lok Sabha MP from Jahanabad, Bihar	convicted for 4 years in Fodder scam	September 2013	Disqualified[13]
Babanrao Gholap	Shiv Sena	MLA from Deolali, Maharashtra	convicted for 3 years in disproportionate assets case	March 2014	Disqualified[14]
T. M. Selvaganapathy	DMK	Rajya Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu	convicted for 2 years in cremation shed case	April 2014	Resigned[15]
Suresh Halvankar	BJP	MLA from Ichalkaranji, Maharashtra	convicted for 3 years in power theft case	May 2014	Disqualified[16]
J. Jayalalithaa	AIADMK	Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu state MLA from Srirangam, Tamil Nadu	convicted for 4 years in disproportionate assets case	September 2014	Disqualified.[17] But acquitted by Karnataka High Court. Appeal Pending in Supreme Court of India.
Asha Rani	BJP	MLA from Bijawar, Madhya Pradesh	convicted for abetting suicide of maid	November 2013	Disqualified[18]
Kamal Kishore Bhagat	All Jharkhand Students Union	MLA from Lohardaga (Vidhan Sabha constituency), Jharkhand	convicted for attempt to murder case	June 2015	Disqualified[19]

References

1. "Lily Thomas vs Union of India & Ors. on 10 July, 2013". indiankanoon.org. Retrieved 3 November 2013.
2. "Section 8 in The Representation of the People Act, 1951". indiankanoon.org. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
3. "MPs, MLAs to be disqualified on date of criminal conviction". The Hindu. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
4. "Bill for no immediate disqualification of convicted MPs, MLAs". The New Indian Express. 30 August 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
5. "SC dismisses govt review petition on convicted politicians, sticks to its stand". Deccan Chronicle. 4 September 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
6. "Ahead of fodder case verdict comes ordinance to protect lawmakers". The Hindu. 24 September 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
7. "Rahul Gandhi trashes ordinance, shames government". The Times of India. 28 September 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
8. "BJP seeks PM's resignation, opposition parties slam government". Business Standard. 27 September 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
9. "PM should quit if he with Rahul Gandhi on ordinance: Chandrababu Naidu". The Indian Express. 28 September 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
10. "'Nonsense' ordinance withdrawn". Business Line. 2 October 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
11. "Congress's Rasheed Masood jailed for 4 years in MBBS seat scam, loses RS seat". CNN IBN. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
12. "Convicted Congress MP Rasheed Masood disqualified from Rajya Sabha – The Times of India". The Times of India. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
13. "Fodder scam: Lalu Yadav, Jagdish Sharma disqualified from Lok Sabha". Zee News. 22 October 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2013.
14. "Bombay High Court dismisses 5-time Shiv Sena MLA plea for suspension of graft conviction". DNA India. 7 September 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
15. "A day after conviction, DMK leader T M Selvaganapathy resigns from Rajya Sabha". Economic Times. 18 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
16. "No HC relief for disqualified BJP MLA in power theft case". Business standard. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
17. "Jayalalithaa cannot contest polls for 10 years". The Hindu. 27 September 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
18. "BJP MLA, Bhaiya Raja get 10-yr in jail". The Pioneer. 1 February 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
19. "Jharkhand MLA Kamal Kishore Bhagat jailed for 7 years for attempt to murder". The Times of India. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.