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‘Manifestly arbitrary’: SC amicus curiae seeks life ban on convicted netas
If bodies such as NHRC cannot comprise convicts, it is manifestly arbitrary that such people can occupy supreme legislative bodies after 6 years, Hansaria said
NEW DELHI: Elected representatives convicted of offences involving moral turpitude should be disqualified from contesting elections for life, not just six years at present, senior advocate Vijay Hansaria has told the Supreme Court in his report, the 19th since his appointment as amicus curiae (friend of court) by the top court in the matter relating to criminal cases against lawmakers.
“The parliamentarians and the legislators represent the sovereign will of the people and once found to have committed an offence involving moral turpitude, are liable to be permanently disqualified from holding the said office,” Hansari said in his report which will come up before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud.
Hansaria pointed to rules relating to civil servants which provide for the dismissal of employees convicted of any offence involving moral turpitude and the laws relating to statutory bodies such as the Central Vigilance Commission and human rights commissions which explicitly disqualify any person convicted of such offences from being appointed to the top positions.
“If statutory authorities cannot comprise convicted persons, it is manifestly arbitrary that such convicted persons can occupy the supreme legislative bodies after the expiry of a certain period of conviction. The lawmakers are required to be much more sacrosanct and inviolable than the persons holding office under such law,” Hansaria’s report reasoned.
“There is no nexus that a person can make law to disqualify another person from holding a statutory office, but the person making the law would incur the disqualification only for a limited period,” the report filed through advocate Sneha Kalita said.
Hansaria was appointed as amicus curiae in the matter relating to the petition filed by Ashwini Upadhyay, a Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party leader, who challenged the constitutional validity of Section 8 of The Representation of People Act, 1951, which disqualifies convicted legislators from contesting elections for six years from their release .
Hansaria’s report concurred, arguing that allowing convicted lawmakers to contest elections after six years was “manifestly arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution” which guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the laws.
The report also underlined the need for expeditious disposal of trials pending against MLAs/MPs and said there were 5,175 cases pending across various trial courts in the country. Of these, 2,116 cases had been pending for more than five years with the largest cases being reported from Uttar Pradesh (1,377), followed by Bihar (546) and Maharashtra (482).
