New Delhi: Two candidates presently lodged in jail on terror expenses emerged winners within the just-concluded parliamentary election, giving rise to an uncommon state of affairs for the 18th Lok Sabha to be shaped within the coming days.
While the regulation will hold them from attending the proceedings of the brand new House, they do have the constitutional proper to take oath as Members of Parliament.
The Election Commission declared the outcomes of the Lok Sabha polls on Tuesday. While radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh received Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib seat, terror financing accused Sheikh Abdul Rashid, also called Engineer Rashid, emerged victorious on Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla seat.
Engineer Rashid has been lodged in Tihar jail since August 9, 2019, on expenses of terror financing. Singh was arrested in April 2023 below the National Security Act and despatched to the Dibrugarh jail in Assam.
The query now arises if these jailed newly elected MPs shall be allowed to take the oath, and if sure, how.
Explaining the legalities concerned, Constitution knowledgeable and former Lok Sabha secretary normal PDT Achari emphasised the significance of following the constitutional provisions in such instances.
Being sworn in as a Member of Parliament is a constitutional proper, he mentioned.
But as a result of they’re presently in jail, Engineer Rashid and Singh should search permission from authorities to be escorted to Parliament for the oath-taking ceremony.
Once they’ve taken the oath, they should return to jail.
To additional clarify the legalities, Achari cited Article 101(4) of the Constitution which offers with the absence of members from each Houses of Parliament with out prior sanction of the Chair.
He mentioned that after they’ve taken oath, they are going to write to the Speaker, informing her or him about their incapability to attend the House. The Speaker will then refer their requests to the House Committee on Absence of Members.
The committee will advocate whether or not the member needs to be allowed to stay absent from House proceedings or not. The suggestion is then put to vote within the House by the Speaker.
If Engineer Rashid or Singh are to be convicted and jailed for no less than two years, they might lose their seats within the Lok Sabha instantly as per the Supreme Court judgment of 2013, which holds that MPs and MLAs can be disqualified in such instances.
This resolution struck down part 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act, which earlier allowed convicted MPs and MLAs three months to enchantment towards their convictions.
