‘How can someone return to Parliament after conviction in criminal case?’ wonders SC

Expressing serious concern over criminalisation of politics, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and the Election Commission to respond in three weeks to a PIL seeking life ban on convicted persons from contesting polls.

Under the current election law, a convicted person is debarred from contesting polls for six years from the date of completion of his sentence and the disqualification disappears thereafter.

A Bench led by Justice Dipankar Datta wondered how a person convicted of crime can be permitted to come back to Parliament and state assemblies.

“Once he is convicted, and the conviction is upheld...and after that how can such people come back to Parliament and (state) legislatures?...that they (Centre and EC) have to answer. There is also an apparent conflict of interest. They would be making the laws,” said the Bench – which also included Justice Manmohan.

“Criminalisation of politics is a serious concern. The Election Commission must have deliberated on this and should propose a better solution than what has been presented before us,” it added.

The top court also sought the assistance of Attorney General R Venkataramani as the PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay who has also challenged the validity of Sections 8 and 9 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 which disqualified convicted politicians from holding elected positions for a limited period only. It posted the matter for further hearing on March 4.

“Today, the law allows a person convicted of murder to serve as the chairman of a nationally recognized political party. This is a serious issue that requires judicial scrutiny,” senior counsel and amicus curiae Vijay Hansaria pointed out.

On behalf of the petitioner, senior counsel Vikas Singh said, “What we are seeing is 46-48% people with kidnapping, rape, murder charges coming back to Parliament where the sentences are for lesser period of time. This could never have been the intention of the Parliament, while drafting this section.”

On the issue of expeditious disposal of criminal cases against MP/MLA which was disposed of in 2023 by a three-judge Bench, leaving it to high courts to monitor, the Bench referred the matter to the CJI for constituting an appropriate Bench after Hansaria pointed out that there was not much progress in such cases.