A person does not cease to be an elector because of his being in custody or prison

In a major setback for the government, the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday dismissed its plea to review an earlier verdict holding that jailbirds can not contest elections during their incarceration.

Supreme Court rejects plea to review verdict on convicts in election. The apex court bank comprising of Justice Sudhanshu Mukhopadhyay and Justice AK Patnaik, referred to the amendment to the Representation of the People Act saying that, “”As a consequence of the aforesaid to the Representation of the People (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013, a person does not cease to be an elector only because of his being in custody or in prison and therefore can contest election to state assembly and parliament,” according to a Zee News report.

“The review petition is therefore rendered in fructuous,” Justice Mukhopadhyay noted during the verdict.

Meanwhile, additional solicitor General L Nageshwar Rao expressed his mind on the apex court’s stand by saying that review petition may not be looked into since it has become clearly in fructuous.

The Supreme Court, on a July 10 verdict, dismissed an appeal by the Chief Election Commissioner challenging a Patna High Court verdict that stated, “We do not find any infirmity in the findings of the High Court that a person who has no right to vote by virtue of the provisions of sub-section (5) of Section 62 of the 1951 (Representation of People) Act is not an elector and is therefore not qualified to contest the election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of a State.”

The Patna High Court ruling also said that, “The name (of a convict undergoing sentence) is not struck off, but the qualification to be an elector and the privilege to vote when in the lawful custody of the police is taken away.”

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Rasheed Masood gets 4 years in jail, set to lose RS seat

Source : Hindustantimes

Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood on Tuesday became the first member of Parliament to be disqualified after conviction in a criminal case.

Masood was sentenced to four years in jail by a special CBI court in Delhi on Tuesday for fraudulently nominating undeserving candidates to MBBS seats in 1990-91. He was held guilty of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery by court on September 19.

Masood is the first MP to be convicted after the Supreme Court on July 10 struck down a law that provided immunity to convicted MPs and MLAs from immediate disqualification.

He was minister of health in the VP Singh government between 1990 and 1991, when he fraudulently nominated candidates to MBBS seats allotted to Tripura in medical colleges across the country from the central pool.

Two of his convicted aides, former IPS officer Gurdial Singh and retired IAS official Amal Kumar Roy, have also been sentenced to one year in jail.

Nine students who had fraudulently got admission in the medical colleges were also convicted of cheating. Two of them, including Masood's nephew, were juvenile at the time of the offence and their case was transferred to the juvenile justice board on January 25, 2007.

Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar and Kashi Ram Reang, who were then Tripura chief minister and health minister, were also accused in the case. Both passed away pending trial.

On July 10, a Supreme Court judgment struck down sub-section 4 of Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, under which incumbent MPs and MLAs can avoid disqualification till pendency of the appeal against conviction in a higher court. The appeal has to be made within three months of the conviction.

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