NEW DELHI: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Friday stood disqualified from contesting Lok Sabha and Assembly elections for eight years except a better court docket stays his conviction, an professional on electoral legal guidelines stated. Citing Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, the professional stated the disqualification might be for eight years — two years of the jail time period awarded by the court docket and one other six years from the date of his launch as prescribed within the legislation. Jail time period of two years or extra attracts disqualification beneath the Act.
“He stands disqualified for a total period of eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction,” stated a former Election Commission official who’s an professional on electoral legal guidelines.
He additionally stated “technically” the Election Commission can maintain a bypoll to the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala as there may be multiple yr earlier than the time period of the current Lok Sabha expires someday in June subsequent yr. Assembly and parliamentary bypolls are prevented if the remaining time period of the House is for lower than one yr.
The professional, who didn’t want to be named, felt that the EC is prone to watch for the 30-day interval granted by the court docket to permit the previous Congress president file an enchantment towards the conviction.
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Gandhi was disqualified from Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after he was convicted by a Surat court docket in a 2019 felony defamation case. Announcing his disqualification, the Lok Sabha Secretariat in a notification stated that it was efficient from March 23, the day of his conviction.
“Consequent upon his conviction by the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat…Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.E. 23 March, 2023,” the notification learn.
The court docket in Surat sentenced on Thursday Gandhi to 2 years in jail in a defamation case, filed on a grievance by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi for his alleged “Modi surname” comment.
The Surat court docket additionally granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to permit him to enchantment in a better court docket. Gandhi is the second member of Lok Sabha, after Lakshadweep MP P P Mohammed Faisal of the Nationalist Congress Party, to have been disqualified within the current previous following conviction.
The Kavaratti periods court docket in Lakshadweep had sentenced 4 individuals, together with Mohammed Faizal to 10 years in jail after they had been discovered responsible in an attempt-to-murder case.
Following the conviction, Faizal was disqualified. However, the Kerala High Court later suspended his conviction and sentence. According to the MP, the Lok Sabha Secretariat is but to problem a notification revoking his disqualification.
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Mohd Azam Khan of the Samajwadi Party was disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly following his conviction in a hate speech case.
His son Abdullah Azam, additionally an SP MLA in UP, was disqualified after being convicted in a case associated to assault on policemen. BJP’s Vikram Saini was disqualified from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly following his conviction final yr in a Muzaffarnagar riots case.
RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa too have confronted disqualification from Parliament and Assembly respectively following their convictions.
