Senior lawyer and former Government Pleader of Dhenkanal Surendra Kumar Mishra has sought a national debate on the verdict of the Supreme Court preventing a person from contesting in election if he has been detained as an under-trial prisoner (UTP) or even is in police custody.
Mishra claimed that there is every possibility of misuse of the law by a ruling party in a State. Citing the recent example of the role of the CBI in the coal scam issue, he said the apex court has condemned the functioning style of the CBI describing the investigating agency as “a parrot of in cage”. However, Mishra welcomed the first part of theSC verdict for pronouncing the Section 8(4) of People’s Representation Act as illegal. Describing the first part of the verdict as historical, he said this would definitely be helpful in preventing criminalisation of politics.