Congress leader Rahul Gandhi can be reinstated as a Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha “immediately”, constitutional expert and former Secretary General of the Lok Sabha PDT Achary told Financial Express Online on Friday.
“The moment the Supreme Court stayed Gandhi’s conviction, his disqualification gets lifted. Once the disqualification is lifted, he becomes a member again. The Lok Sabha Secretariat has to notify it on the basis of the court’s order,” he said.
The Supreme Court on Friday stayed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in the ‘Modi surname’ defamation case.
A three-judge bench of the top court comprising Justices BR Gavai, PS Narasimha, and Sanjay Kumar, heard the former Wayanad MP’s plea against the verdict of the Gujarat High Court, upholding his conviction in the defamation case.
Ordering a stay, the court noted that the trial court gave no reasons for imposing the maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment on Gandhi following his conviction, adversely affecting the petitioners’ right to continue in public life as well as that of the electorate that elected him.
Immediately after the apex court’s judgment, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Friday met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, and urged him to restore the membership of Gandhi.
On March 23, Gandhi was convicted by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat, HH Varma and awarded a two-year simple imprisonment, the maximum sentence in such cases, in the criminal defamation case filed by former Gujarat minister and BJP MLA from Surat West Purnesh Modi.
The case pertains to a speech by Gandhi an election rally in Kolar, Karnataka, in 2019 when he had remarked, “How come all thieves have Modi surname?”
The judgment paves way for Gandhi to return as a Lok Sabha MP. Following his conviction, a notice issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat said that he was disqualified from the House from March 23, the day of his conviction.
The case of Lakshadweep MP and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Mohammed Faizal PP shows that Gandhi’s reinstatement as an MP should only be a matter of time.
Faizal was disqualified as Lok Sabha MP after the sessions court in Kavaratti, Lakshadweep, convicted and sentenced him to 10 years in jail in an attempt to murder case on January 11 this year. Two days later, the Lok Sabha Secretariat notified Faizal’s disqualification under Section 8(3) of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, the same provision under which Gandhi was disqualified.
After the Kerala High Court suspended his conviction and sentencing in the case on January 25, he was restored as an MP in March.
However, even after the Kerala HC court had suspended his conviction, he was not reinstated even after two months, following which Faizal challenged in the Supreme Court the Lok Sabha Secretariat’s “unlawful action” in failing to withdraw its disqualification notice.
Meanwhile, hours ahead of the hearing in the Supreme Court, the Lok Sabha Secretariat in an order said, “In view of order dated 25.01.2023 of the High Court of Kerala, the disqualification of Shri Mohammed Faizal P P notified vide Gazette notification no. 21/4/(1)/2023/TO(B) dated the 13th January, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 9 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, has ceased to operate subject to further judicial pronouncements.”