Rahul Gandhi disqualified from Lok Sabha day after conviction

When the Lok Sabha met at 11 am and Speaker Om Birla came in, Gandhi was standing near his seat. Although Birla called for Question Hour to begin, Congress leaders Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi and K Suresh stood up and asked the chair to permit Gandhi to speak.

The Congress has been demanding that Gandhi be allowed to speak on the floor of the House in the backdrop of the BJP mounting an attack on him for his alleged anti-India remarks in London.

With the Speaker not obliging, Congress MPs rushed to the well of the House demanding that Gandhi be allowed to speak. “Bolne do, bolne do, Rahul Gandhi ko bolne do,” some of them shouted. The Speaker adjourned the proceedings till noon. When the House met at 12 to pass the Finance Bill, Gandhi did not return to the House.

Sources in the Lok Sabha Secretariat said the notification had to be issued immediately as Gandhi had come to the Lok Sabha. “Since he came to the House in the morning, which he should not have as the conviction of Surat court for two years has automatically disqualified him from the Lok Sabha membership, the Lok Sabha Secretariat was compelled to issue the notification immediately. Otherwise, our stand would have been questioned in court,” a source said, adding that Gandhi’s actions could invite contempt of court charges.

The disqualification notification drew condemnation from Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Shashi Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal and several Opposition leaders, including TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray.

The notification came on a day when Opposition leaders led by the Congress had held a protest rally against Gandhi’s conviction, marching to Rashtrapati Bhavan with posters saying, ‘Democracy is in Danger’.

As per Section 8(3) of the Representation of People Act, 1951, “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.” However, the disqualification can be reversed if a higher court grants a stay on the conviction or decides the appeal in favour of Gandhi.