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Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi’s membership of Parliament has been cancelled following his conviction and sentencing by a local court in Surat on Thursday. A notification issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Friday said Rahul “stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 23 March, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951”.
A copy of the notification was forwarded to “Shri Rahul Gandhi, Ex-MP”.
It is part of the procedure. In a note on October 13, 2015, the Election Commission of India had asked state chief secretaries to issue appropriate instructions to the department dealing with prosecutions to ensure that cases of conviction of sitting MPs or MLAs were brought to the notice of the Speaker or Chairman of the House, and to the Chief Electoral Officer of the state, along with the order of conviction within seven days of the order.
Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 states that “a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release.”
Thus, the disqualification is triggered by the conviction itself, and not by the Lok Sabha notification. The notification is merely a formal notice to Rahul, who was in Lok Sabha on Friday before the House was adjourned.
In the case of a disqualified MLA, the notice is issued by the Vidhan Sabha concerned. For example, in the case of Samajwadi Party MLA Azam Khan, the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Secretariat issued the notice of disqualification in October last year.
The Supreme Court in its ruling in Lok Prahari v Union of India (2018) clarified that a disqualification triggered by a conviction will be reversed if the conviction is stayed by a court. “Once the conviction has been stayed during the pendency of an appeal, the disqualification which operates as a consequence of the conviction cannot take or remain in effect,” the ruling said.
The notification by the House Secretariat regarding Rahul will cease to be in effect if and when his conviction is stayed.
Article 102 of the Constitution deals with grounds for disqualification of a parliamentarian.
Sub-clause (e) of Article 102(1) says an MP will lose his membership of the House “if he is so disqualified by or under any law made by Parliament”. The law in this case is the RP Act.
Section 8 of the RP Act deals with disqualification of a lawmaker for conviction in certain offences. The provision is aimed at “preventing criminalisation of politics and keeping ‘tainted’ lawmakers from contesting elections.
As a Lok Sabha MP, Rahul was entitled to a house in Lutyens’ Delhi. Following his disqualification, he will have one month to vacate his 12 Tughlak Lane home, according to sources in the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. Rahul had been allotted the house after being elected MP from Amethi in 2004.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat has sent a copy of the disqualification notification to the liaison officer of the Directorate of Estates for further action. The sources said since the bungalow belongs to the Lok Sabha pool of residential properties, the action for its vacation would have to be initiated by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
Rahul also loses all other perks that a Member of Parliament enjoys.
The Election Commission can announce a byelection to the seat — in Azam Khan’s case, the schedule for the byelection to Khan’s 37-Rampur seat (along with byelections to fill four other vacancies across the country) was announced within a few days.
However, in the more recent case of Lakshadweep MP P P Mohammed Faisal, the EC, which had announced the bypoll on January 18 after the MP’s conviction, had to withdraw the announcement on January 30 after Faisal’s conviction was suspended by the Kerala High Court on January 25.
His disqualification can be reversed if a higher court grants a stay on the conviction or decides the appeal in his favour. His first appeal would have to be before the Surat Sessions Court, and then before the Gujarat High Court.
If he does not get relief from the courts, he will be disqualified from contesting elections for eight years — two years of his sentence, plus six years under the provisions of the RP Act.
His lawyer Kirit Panwala moved an application before the Surat court on Friday seeking time to file an appeal.
