Supreme Court of India is hearing a PIL regarding
disqualification of those MPs and MLAs
from contesting elections against whom chargesheet has been filed in a
criminal court and regarding fast-tracking criminal cases involving
politicians. This is Writ Petition (Civil) No.536/2011 titled as ‘Public
Interest foundation vs Union of India’. (At present, a MP or MLA, only on being
convicted, ceases to be MP / MLA. There is no disqualification incurred at the
stage of being chargesheeted).
On 16.12.2013, Supreme Court requested the Law Commission
of India to expedite consideration of the two issues, namely, (1)
whether disqualification should be triggered upon conviction as it exists today
or upon framing of charges by the court or upon the presentation of
the chargesheet by
the Investigating Officer under
Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and (2) whether filing of false
affidavits under Section 125A of the
Representation of People
Act, 1951 should be a ground of disqualification? and, if yes, what mode
and mechanism needs to be provided for adjudication on the veracity of the
affidavit? In pursuance thereto, the Law Commission prepared its recommendation in the form
of 244th Report
titled 'Electoral
Disqualifications'. In this Report, the Law Commission recommended that
MP / MLA should be disqualified on framing of charges against them by the
court, subject to certain conditions. This was considered by the Supreme Court
in hearing on 10th March 2014.
To ensure the
maintenance of probity of public
office, to ensure conclusion of trial expeditiously, the Supreme Court on said
day directed that in relation to sitting MPs and MLAs who have charges framed against
them for the offences which are specified in Section 8(1), 8(2) and 8(3)
of the
RP Act, the
trial shall be concluded as speedily and expeditiously as may
be possible and in no case later
than one year from the date of the framing
of charge(s). In such cases, as far as possible, the trial shall be conducted on a day-to-day basis. If for some extraordinary
circumstances the concerned court is being not
able to conclude the trial
within one year
from the date
of framing of charge(s), such court would submit the
report to the Chief Justice of the
respective High Court indicating special reasons for not adhering to the above time limit and delay in
conclusion of the trial. In such situation,
the Chief Justice may issue appropriate directions to the
concerned court extending the time for conclusion of the trial. The matter will
now come up on 2nd January 2015.
Click below for the Full text of Order dated 10th March 2014.
http://courtnic.nic.in/supremecourt/temp/wc%2053611p.txt
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