Review plea in SC on convicted leaders
Separate pleas have been filed in the Supreme Court seeking review of its two recent judgments which had created quite a flutter by barring convicted legislators as well as persons behind bars from contesting elections.
The pleas have been filed by Haryana Swatantra Party President Ramesh Dalal, who has urged the apex court to review its two verdicts delivered on July 10. The apex court had ruled that a person who is in jail or in police custody, with the exception of preventive custody, cannot contest election to legislative bodies. In the other consecutive landmark verdict, the apex court had also struck down a provision in the Representation of Peoples Act (RPA) that protects a convicted legislator from disqualification on the ground of pendency of appeal in higher courts.
The verdicts, delivered by a bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and S.J. Mukhopadhyaya, have been widely opposed by politicians cutting across party lines and the Centre has also indicated that it may also approach the top court for a review and also go for a “legislative remedy” by amending the current laws.
“The impugned judgment, suffers from errors, which are apparent on the face of the record. Section 8(4) of RPA has been declared unconstitutional by this court without tracing its history and object sought to be achieved in terms of the rationale behind it,” the petition filed by Mr Dalal said. “This Court passed erroneous judgment which shall have serious repercussion and consequences over the functioning of Parliament, state legislature and democracy in the country as a whole. There is no doubt that preventing of criminalisation of politics is a basic feature of the Constitution but it cannot be extended to the level when democratically constituted Parliament may be weakened even to face its very existence and continuity. With this reason, this matter deserves to be referred to the Constitution bench/ larger bench for proper consideration,” the petition said.
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