Tag: disqualification

SC declines to hear plea against automatic disqualification of convicted MPs, MLAs

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to entertain a plea challenging the validity of the provision mandating “blanket and automatic” disqualification of legislators upon conviction and sentence.
Counsel for petitioner Aabha Muralidharan, contended before Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud that the provision restrains a lawmaker from freely discharging the duties cast upon him/her by the voters of the constituency.
The bench, also comprising Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala, told counsel that the court is not inclined to entertain the petition and “let the aggrieved party come before us”.

The bench asked the counsel, “How are you as an individual affected? When you are disqualified due to the provision, then we can look into it” and asked the lawyer to either withdraw your petition or it will dismiss it.
The plea prayed that automatic disqualification under Section 8A(3) of the Representation of People Act, 1951, should be declared as ultra vires of the Constitution, for being arbitrary, illegal, and violative of fundamental right to equality.
The petitioner, a social worker from Kerala’s Malappuram, sought a direction that automatic disqualification did not exist under Section 8A(3) of the Act, while citing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as an MP by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The plea said: “The grounds for disqualification ought to be specific with the nature of offences as specified under the Code for Criminal Procedure and not in a blanket form, as is currently in force under Section 8(3) of the RP Act”.
The plea contended that interpretation provided by the apex court in Lily Thomas case (2013) requires re-examination, to the effect of adjudicating the provisions of disqualification under Chapter III of the Act. “The operations of Lily Thomas case are being blatantly misused for wreaking personal vengeance against the political parties,” said the plea.

“If the offence under SectionA499 and 500 of the IPC, which just technically has a maximum punishment of 2 years is not removed singularly from the sweeping effect of the judgement in Lily Thomas, it will have a chilling effect on the right of representation of the citizens.”
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#declines #hear #plea #automatic #disqualification #convicted #MPs #MLAs
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 5, 2023
After LS disqualification, Rahul’s first public meet postponed to April 16

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Bengaluru: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s event, which was supposed to take place on April 10 has been postponed further and now it will be held on April 16 at Kolar, Karnataka Congress unit president D K Shivakumar said on Saturday.
Gandhi had planned to address people on April 10 at the same place where his speech during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections had led to his disqualification from the lower house of the Parliament, Shivakumar told reporters here.
However, due to the Assembly election-related works and the selection of candidates, the party leaders requested he extends it by a week.

“We had requested Rahul Gandhi to extend the public meeting by a week and he gave his consent. Gandhi and all leaders will come on April 16 for the Jai Bharat event at Kolar,” Shivakumar said.
He added that this will be Gandhi’s first public address in Kolar after his disqualification from the Lok Sabha. He also said that Gandhi’s disqualification was an insult to democracy.
“Cancelling the Lok Sabha membership of Rahul Gandhi, who had won with a margin of seven lakh votes, is an insult to the entire democracy,” Shivakumar said.
According to Congress sources, Gandhi’s event was earlier planned on April 5, which was changed to April 6. Then it was again planned on April 9, which clashed with Prime Minister’s Project Tiger event in Mysuru. The date was then rescheduled to April 10 and now once again it has been postponed to April 16.

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#disqualification #Rahuls #public #meet #postponed #April
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 8, 2023
Himachal Youth Congress holds protest against Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification

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Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh Youth Congress on Friday evening took out a protest march against the disqualification of party leader Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha.
Carrying mashaals’ in their hands and holding placards, hundreds of Youth Congress workers marched from the party office to the Raj Bhavan and raised slogans in favour of Gandhi.
Taking a dig at the Crentre, Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas B V said the people of the country would remember the Modi government as the “destroyer of democracy”.

The BJP is afraid of the success of Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is suppressing his voice, he said.
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#Himachal #Youth #Congress #holds #protest #Rahul #Gandhis #disqualification
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 8, 2023
BRS demands disqualification of Bandi Sanjay from Parliament

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Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Wednesday demanded disqualification of Karimnagar Lok Sabha MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar following his arrest in 10th class paper leak case.
State ministers and other BRS leaders said Lok Sabha Speaker should take immediate action and disqualify Sanjay for committing an offence of a grave nature.
Sanjay, who is also President of BJP’s Telangana unit, was arrested by the police in Karimnagar after midnight. He will be produced in a court in Warangal later in the day.

Sate finance minister T. Harish Rao said they were requesting Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to disqualify Sanjay.
Harish Rao described Sanjay as the mastermind in leakage of Hindi question paper of Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and claimed that he has been caught red-handed.
He alleged that, unable to fight BRS politically, the BJP leader was playing with the future of children. “BJP’s politics has touched a new low. They can stoop to any level for political gains,” he said.
Harish Rao said that Prashanth who was arrested for question paper leak in Warangal on Tuesday is a BJP worker and he had sent the paper to Bandi Sanjay while the examination was still on. “This was a conspiracy to defame the government but he has been caught red-handed,” said the minister.
He pointed out that on Tuesday afternoon BJP leaders in Warangal staged a protest demanding arrests in the paper leak case but in the evening they demanded release of the accused in the case.

The minister said the accused called Bandi Sanjay several times on his mobile shared the leaked question paper widely on social media to defame the government.
The finance minister alleged that Bandi Sanjay was also behind the leakage of a Telugu question paper in Tandur on Monday. He said that the teacher who took a photo of the question paper at the exam centre and shared it on WhatsApp was a leader of the teachers’ union backed by the BJP.
Ministers Srinivas Goud, P. Ajay Kumar, several BRS MLAs and other leaders also addressed separate news conferences to demand disqualification of Sanjay from Parliament. They also demanded stringent action against him for the paper leak.
Minister K.T. Rama Rao alleged that BJP leaders were playing with the lives of innocent students and unemployed by leaking question papers for their selfish politics.
“If a madman has a stone in his hand, there is danger to passersby but if a party is in the hands of the same madman, it is a danger to democracy,” tweeted KTR, who is also working president of BRS.
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#BRS #demands #disqualification #Bandi #Sanjay #Parliament
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 5, 2023
Adhir writes to Speaker seeking debate in Lok Sabha on Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification

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New Delhi: Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday demanding a debate on whether Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification was “a disproportionate punishment”, and cited that a BJP MP did not face the same action despite being awarded a higher sentence in 2016.
He said Naranbhai Kachhadiya, the BJP MP from Amreli in Gujarat, was not disqualified from Parliament in 2016 despite being awarded a three-year jail term for offences under IPC sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 186 (voluntarily obstructing public servant from discharge of duty), and 143 (punishment for member of an unlawful assembly).
Kachhadiya should have been disqualified, but the then speaker did not resort to any action against him, the Congress leader said.

“But it is intriguing to note that…Rahul Gandhi…was summarily disqualified from Lok Sabha in the wake of the Surat district court verdict of two years sentence to jail even though his sentence was suspended by the same court for a period of one month, which facilitated his next attempt for an appeal in higher courts,” he said.
Chowdhury said a sessions court in Surat on Monday granted bail to Gandhi in the defamation case and suspended his two-year sentence till the disposal of the appeal against his conviction.
“With heavy heart and mortification I plead to you that there should be a debate in Parliament as to ascertain the fact that whether our leader…has been awarded disproportionate punishment which smacks of cognitive dissonance…,” Chowdhury wrote.
He said “what is sauce for the goose must be the sauce for the gander”.
Under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, two conditions are to be met before disqualifying an elected member. First the member has to be awarded conviction for an offence and second, he has to be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years, he said.

“According to my knowledge before disqualifying the elected member this two
conditions are considered prerequisite…. In my view the second condition cannot stand the test of the prescribed provision of the Representation of the People Act as the sentence of Rahul Gandhi was suspended by the trail court itself,” the Congress leader said.
Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha a day after a Surat court convicted and sentenced him to two-year imprisonment on March 23 in a criminal defamation case for his “Modi surname” remark made in Kolar in Karnataka in 2019.
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#Adhir #writes #Speaker #seeking #debate #Lok #Sabha #Rahul #Gandhis #disqualification
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 4, 2023
‘Rahul’s LS disqualification will be a key issue in 2024 polls’

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Bhopal: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday said former INC president Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha will be one of the key issues to corner the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Chavan said this here while addressing a press conference on the recent political developments following the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Lower House of Parliament.
“The matter will not end… and the Congress will take this issue to the people during the general elections,” he said.
Notably, the All India Congress Committee on Wednesday organised as many as 35 press conferences in all states and major cities.
The former Maharashtra Chief Minister said Rahul Gandhi was targeted for questioning the relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and business tycoon Gautam Adani.
“If Rahul Gandhi raised questions and demanded an investigation into the Adani group, did he do anything wrong? The entire episode is happening at the behest of PM Modi. Even BJP leaders accept that wrong things are happening… but they are unable to express their thoughts openly,” Chavan said.
The senior Congress leader also asserted that Rahul Gandhi is likely to face more attacks from the BJP in coming days.
Chavan said that “first, the BJP got Rahul Gandhi disqualified and to justify its decision, the party has created a false impression that Rahul Gandhi has insulted the OBC community with his Modi surname comments”.

“The defamation case in which Rahul Gandhi was convicted was closed. The complainant had himself written to the district court to put a stay on his complaint in a Surat court. However, the case was reopened with the permission of Gujarat High Court just nine days after Rahul Gandhi exposed PM Modi,” Chavan claimed.
Meanwhile, the Congress’ Madhya Pradesh unit criticised Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for “suddenly” calling a press conference at 3 a.m. — the same time when Chavan’s interaction with the media was scheduled to begin.
State Congress’ media head K.K. Mishra said: “CM Chouhan should respect the protocol of a former chief minister who is also from another state. What CM Chouhan did today, proved that there is no respect for Constitutional values. We condemn his act of calling a press conference at the time when a former CM was already scheduled to address the press. The Congress will also write a letter to him on this matter.”
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#Rahuls #disqualification #key #issue #polls
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 30, 2023
After Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, EC in no hurry for Wayanad bypoll

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New Delhi: The Election Commission on Wednesday announced the date for the by-election to fill vacancies in one Parliamentary constituency of Punjab and four Assembly constituencies in Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya.
However, the poll panel said that it is in no hurry to announce bypoll to the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency after Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lower House.
As per the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Rajeev Kumar, bypoll on the selected seats will be held on May 10 and the results will come out on May 13.
May 10 will also witness the Assembly polls in the southern State of Karnataka.
However, the poll panel did not announce the bypoll schedule for Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency after Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lower House.
The CEC on Wednesday said that the Election Commission is in no hurry to announce bypoll to Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has 30 days to exercise judicial remedy in the 2019 defamation case. The CEC said the trial court in Surat has given Rahul Gandhi 30 days to seek a judicial remedy. “There is no hurry, we will wait,” he added.
The CEC said the vacancy in the Wayanad parliamentary party was notified on March 23 this year and as per the law, a bypoll has to be conducted within six months.
Referring to rules, he said that if the remainder of the term was less than one year, then the election will not be held. In the case of Wayanad, the remainder of the term is more than a year.

By-elections in Jalandhar parliamentary constituency in Punjab and Assembly constituencies of Jharsuguda (Odisha), Chhanbey and Suar (Uttar Pradesh) and Sohiong (Meghalaya) will be held on May 10.
The notification for the bypoll will be issued on April 13. While submission of nominations for the bypoll will continue till April 20, scrutiny of the same will be held on April 21. Nominations for the by-election can be withdrawn till April 24.
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#Rahul #Gandhis #disqualification #hurry #Wayanad #bypoll
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 29, 2023
Congress protests Rahul’s disqualification in Shillong

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Shillong: The opposition Congress staged a demonstration in Shillong on Tuesday, protesting the disqualification of its leader Rahul Gandhi from Parliament.
Congress legislative party leader V Lyngdoh along with MLAs Charles Marngar, Celestine Lyngdoh and Saleng Sangma joined the protest at the Congress Bhavan here.
Armed with placards and posters, party workers raised slogans, condemning the action against Gandhi.
“Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification is suppression of democratic rights and freedom by the NDA government at the Centre,” V Lyngdoh said.
“They want to suppress the truth that our leader has been raising in Parliament about the misgovernance of the BJP,” he added.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat on Friday disqualified Gandhi as MP from Wayanad in Kerala, a day after a Surat court convicted him in the 2019 criminal defamation case for his remark, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?”
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#Congress #protests #Rahuls #disqualification #Shillong
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 28, 2023
Congress activists stage protest in Delhi against Rahul’s disqualification, detained

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New Delhi: Scores of Indian Youth Congress activists staged a protest at the Jantar Mantar here on Monday against Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha and were detained when they tried to march towards Parliament.
Indian Youth Congress activists from across the country gathered here to show solidarity with Gandhi and criticised the central government for “silencing” the voices of the democratic opposition.
Carrying IYC flags and “Satyameva Jayate” placards, the protesters demanded justice for Gandhi.
A senior police officer said around 15 Congress workers, including senior leaders and IYC president Srinivas BV, were detained and taken to Mandir Marg police station from where they were released after a few hours.
Addressing the protesters, Srinivas BV said the dictatorship and mute-system of the Modi government has weakened the foundation of democracy in the country.
Youth Congress workers will continue to fight against this ‘Modishahi’ and will win. No matter how many difficulties come, it cannot deter our spirits, he said.
“Rahul Gandhi ji is not fighting for himself but for the country and countrymen. Why is the whole central government, ministers and MPs trying to save one man Adani. Thousands of crores are in their shell companies but investigation is not being done, why?
“If Adani earns Rs 12 lakh crore in just two and a half years, then it is necessary to ask – where did this money come from? Who gave this money? Rahul Gandhi ji is fighting for the people of this country, for the women, for the youth. Fighting against unemployment and inflation and will continue to fight,” he said.

“The Centre has shown that no one can speak or question the Modi government. Rahul ji raised questions about Adani…so they attempted to silence him by disqualifying him,” said Vikram, one of the protesters.
“Rahul Gandhi is fearless and will continue to question the government over their wrong deeds,” he added.
The protesters, including Srinivas BV, were detained when they tried to march towards Parliament.
“Several protesters have been detained and taken to Mandir Marg police station. They were allowed only to protest at Jantar Mantar but when they climbed over the multi-layered barricades to head towards Parliament, they were detained at the spot,” a senior police officer said.
Gandhi, 52, was disqualified from Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a court in Gujarat’s Surat convicted him in a 2019 defamation case. The disqualification will prevent Gandhi, a four-time MP, from contesting elections for eight years unless a higher court stays the conviction.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 28, 2023
Rahul Gandhi believes he is above law: Smriti Irani on his disqualification from LS

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Bengaluru: Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani on Monday called the disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as Lok Sabha MP an ‘operation of the law,’ demonstrating that no person was above law in the country.
She also charged that Gandhi believed that he was above law after his disqualification from the Lok Sabha, following his conviction in a defamation case.
“It was made to appear as though it was the central government which disqualified Rahul Gandhi as an MP. It is a directive of the court,” Irani pointed out during a Yuva Samvada event organised by Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya.
The programme was organised as part of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s outreach programme for the first time voters ahead of the 2023 Assembly Elections in Karnataka.
Irani alleged that the person concerned’ made a racial slur not against one individual, but against the entire OBC community.
“A case in the court was fought on merits and evidence. If you read the judgement, it says the person concerned’ did not defend himself. Either someone in his organisation did not want to defend him or Rahul Gandhi thinks he is above the law,” the Union Minister said.
She noted that once the court ordered conviction, it is incumbent upon the speaker of the house to follow constitutional practice and accordingly, the Speaker took a decision.
“Should we as a democracy say that you can indulge in a racial slur against an entire community and not be held accountable by law just because you are Rahul Gandhi? People from his party have said on record that the law for the average Indian be separate and that law dealing with the Gandhi family be separate. The law spoke, hence let the law be followed.”

Referring to Gandhi’s recent remarks in London that he cannot speak in Indian Universities, she said, “Gandhi had been to universities in India, interacted with students, but no government stopped him from interacting. This means that he was lying in England.”
Speaking of the Nirbhaya fund, Irani alleged that it was set up during the Congress-led UPA rule, which remained unused for the first two years.
When Modi assumed office as Prime Minister in 2014, projects worth Rs 9,000 crore were planned for women’s safety across the country. For the first time in the history of India, an anti-human trafficking unit was set up in every district of our country, she added.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 27, 2023