In view of the amendment carried out in the law to enable even jailed persons to contest polls,the Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the Centres review petition against its July verdict. The court had then ruled that a person who is in lawful custody,including undertrials as well as those in police or judicial custody,cannot contest elections to the Lok Sabha or assemblies. A Bench led by Justice A K Patnaik took note of the amendment in the Representation of the People Act to nullify the effect of its July verdict whereby those in lawful custody had been restrained from contesting elections since they were no more electors under the law. Under the previous legal regime,only those who could vote had been defined as elector and only electors could contest the elections. The amendment approved in September,however,rectified this anomaly by laying down that a person shall not seize to be an elector although he cannot vote because of his being in lawful custody. The amendment was made to have retrospective effect from July 10 when the SC verdict was passed. Appearing for the Centre,Additional Solicitor General L N Rao adduced before the Bench the new amendment and its gazette notification. He said that nothing remained to be adjudicated after the impugned provision in the RP Act had been amended with retrospective effect. The Bench accepted his submission and said: As a consequence of the aforesaid amendment,a person does not seize to be an elector only by reason of his being in police custody or lawful imprisonment and therefore he can contest elections for the state legislature as well as Parliament. In view of the amendment,it is not necessary to go into the merits of the RP Act,review petition is accordingly dismissed. The Bench had earlier dismissed the Centres another review petition against a separate verdict,restraining convicted MPs and MLAs from contesting polls. The court had said that there was no error in its judgement and that the government should take other recourse available under the law if it was aggrieved. Seeking to negate the Supreme Court verdict,the government had introduced a Bill in Parliament in the monsoon session but following differences with the opposition,the Bill could not be passed. An ordinance on the lines of the Bill was later cleared by the Cabinet on September 24 to protect convicted lawmakers. But reversing its earlier step,the Cabinet on October 2 decided to withdraw the ordinance as well as the Bill in the wake of public outburst against it by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
