Close on the heels of withdrawing the Ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers, the Centre has asked the law Commission to examine if persons can be disqualified to contest polls at the stage of framing of charge against them by a trial court.
At present, the disqualification under Section 8 of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951 only sets in if a person is convicted of a crime. Though the Election Commission first mooted a proposal to disqualify persons at the stage of framing of charge itself, this view was rejected by a Parliamentary Standing Committee. Now with a PIl seeking electoral reforms aimed to erase criminalisation of politics, the law Ministry filed an affidavit indicating its decision to allow the law Commission take a final call.
“The subject matter of electoral reforms in its entirety has, therefore, been referred to law Commission of India for consideration and examination with the aid of reports of various Committees in the past the views of the Election Comm
ission, and other stakeholders and to suggest comprehensive measures for plausible changes in the law under reference,” said the affidavit filed by Deputy Secretary Jose Thomas of the Ministry’s legislative Wing.
The Standing Committee of Parliament while opposing EC view had hinted that criminalisation of politics had eroded public faith in political process. This too added to the matter being referred to law Commission.
With the report of the law Commission still awaited, the Centre informed a bench headed by Justice RM lodha that the PIl filed by Public Interest Foundation was not necessary to be entertained. It said, “There are relevant and suitable provisions in the laws relating to the electoral process to remove and also to prevent the persons with criminal background to enter into the active politics.” Ironically, the bench cited the recent SC decision of July 10 disqualifying convicted lawmakers to suggest how the route open for convicted legislators to remain in power remained settled, although the factual situation remained that this judgment was contested by the Centre in a review petition and later an Ordinance was brought to overcome it.