Bihar politician Anant Singh loses assembly membership, not the 1st on that list

The case pertains to the recovery of one AK-47 assault rifle, two hand grenades and live cartridges when the police in rural Patna’s Barh raided Singh’s native village Ladma on August 16, 2019

In a major setback to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Bihar Legislative Assembly on Thursday issued the notification terminating the membership of four-time Mokama MLA Anant Kumar Singh, midway through his current term, with effect from June 21 following the leader’s conviction and 10-year jail sentence in a criminal case.

Former Mokama MLA Anant Singh outside the Beur jail in 2019. (HT File Photo)

“In the light of the MP/MLA court in a Barh case passing the order of conviction and sentence against Anant Kumar Singh, his membership is terminated in accordance with the provisions under the Representative of People’s Act, 1951 and Article 191 (1-e) of the Constitution with effect from June 21, 2022 (the day of conviction). As a result, the list of the Vidhan Sabha members is amended,” stated the notification issued by Pawan Kumar Pandey, secretary of the Bihar Vidhan Sabha.

The special MP/MLA court awarded 10 years of rigorous imprisonment to Anant Singh, a.k.a ‘Chhote Sarkar’, under different sections of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act, leading to his disqualification and ban from contesting elections.

The case pertains to the recovery of one AK-47 assault rifle, two hand grenades and live cartridges when the police in rural Patna’s Barh raided Singh’s native village Ladma on August 16, 2019.

The Patna police lodged a case against him and others under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019. Singh, who was on the run after the police issued a lookout notice against him, appeared before Saket metropolitan court magistrate Harun Pratap in Delhi on August 23, 2019 and surrendered.

A Vidhan Sabha official clarified that there was a delay in the issue of notification as it could be done only after an official communication, but the termination of membership is effective from the day of the sentencing.

In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that charge sheeted members of Parliament and MLAs, who have been convicted, will be immediately disqualified from holding membership of the House without being given three months’ time to appeal. Earlier, there was a provision under Section 8 (4) of the RP Act, 1951 to move the higher court. But the apex court struck down this section.

Singh is the third RJD MLA to lose membership in the last four years. Earlier on December 27, 2018, the state assembly terminated the membership of Raj Ballabh Yadav, a party MLA from Nawada, after he was sentenced for life in a case involving rape of a minor.

In November, 2018 senior party MLA and former minister Illiyas Hussain, who was convicted and awarded five years’ imprisonment in a multi-crore bitumen scam by a CBI court on September 27, 2018, too lost his assembly membership.

In 2015, BJP MLA Ram Naresh Prasad Yadav too lost his membership after he was convicted and sentenced to 10-year rigorous imprisonment for being involved in an attack on the Sitamarhi collectorate and subsequent firing in 1998. However, his wife Gayatri Devi currently represents the Parihar seat in Sitamarhi.

After the 2020 Assembly elections, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed that 163 (68%) out of the 241 newly elected leaders from all parties in the 243-member Bihar assembly had declared criminal cases. The figure, as per the study, was higher than 2015, when 142 (58%) MLAs declared criminal cases.

“The number of candidates declared serious criminal cases in 2020 was 123 (51%), which included 19 having declared murder cases, while 31 reported attempt to murder cases and eight crimes against women. In 2015, MLAs having declared serious criminal cases was 98,” the report said.

DM Diwakar, former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, said that the main responsibility of cleaning the political system was with the political parties.

“Else, what is happening is that the court is convicting one leader and he starts politics from back door through his wife and son. Political parties will have to show their will for it, like social leader Madhu Limaye once did. When his party men wanted to field his wife, he offered to resign though he was a tall leader. A tainted person doing active politics through kin happens in every political party and that is where the problem lies. The courts should dispose of all such cases at the earliest and if that happens, more will lose membership,” he added.