The Supreme Court Friday said it could decide to hear a PIL against the ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers from disqualification only after a Presidential nod to it. Indicating that the hearing would be premature without the ordinance having a meaning in law,the court said that it could not hear the PIL based on certain anticipations. Suppose the ordinance is passed,we can still pass the stay order. You mention the matter on Monday,if it is cleared, said a Bench of Justices A K Patnaik and J S Khehar when it was argued that the Presidential nod was merely a formality. During the brief hearing,advocate M L Sharma said the ordinance was being fast-tracked in view of impending verdict in a fodder scam case involving RJD chief Lalu Prasad as one of the accused. Sharma has moved the PIL for quashing the ordinance proceedings by the Cabinet for amending the law to protect convicted MPs and MLAs from facing immediate disqualification. There was no extra-ordinary emergency circumstance to issue ordinance for amending the Representation of the People Act,he said.
