Senior advocate Vijay Hansaria, in his 19th report as amicus curiae to the Supreme Court regarding criminal cases against lawmakers, has urged the Court to amend the current provision. Currently, elected representatives convicted of offences involving moral turpitude face disqualification from contesting elections for only six years. Hansaria proposes that such individuals should face a lifetime ban from contesting elections.
The Supreme Court has been examining a petition challenging Section 8 of The Representation of the People Act 1951, which pertains to the disqualification of convicted MPs and MLAs for a period of six years.
Hansaria stressed that parliamentarians and legislators represent the sovereign will of the people. Therefore, once they are found guilty of offences involving moral turpitude, they should be permanently disqualified from holding such offices. This recommendation will be presented before a bench presided over by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud. Hansaria drew attention to existing rules governing civil servants, which call for the dismissal of employees convicted of offences involving moral turpitude. Similarly, laws pertaining to statutory bodies like the Central Vigilance Commission and human rights commissions explicitly disqualify individuals convicted of such offences from holding top positions.
Hansaria’s report argued, “If statutory authorities cannot include convicted individuals, it is manifestly arbitrary to allow such convicted individuals to occupy supreme legislative bodies after a certain period of conviction. Lawmakers should be held to a higher standard and be inviolable, compared to individuals holding office under such laws.”
The report, submitted through advocate Sneha Kalita, highlighted the lack of a coherent connection between a person’s ability to make laws disqualifying others from holding statutory office and that same person incurring disqualification only for a limited period. Vijay Hansaria was appointed as amicus curiae in response to a petition filed by Ashwini Upadhyay, a leader of the Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party, challenging the constitutional validity of Section 8 of The Representation of People Act, 1951. This section currently disqualifies convicted legislators from contesting elections for a six-year period following their release. Hansaria’s report echoed the petitioner’s argument that allowing convicted lawmakers to contest elections after just six years was “manifestly arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.” Article 14 guarantees equality before the law and equal protection of the laws.
The report also emphasised the urgent need for the speedy resolution of trials pending against MLAs and MPs. It revealed that there were 5,175 such cases pending in various trial courts across the country, with 2,116 of them lingering for more than five years. Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of such cases (1,377), followed by Bihar (546) and Maharashtra (482).
