On July 3rd a bench of The Supreme Court of India decided that it was unconstitutional for Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly at the state level to continue as lawmakers, and that they should be immediately barred from attending the House.
You would have thought that this was a oxymoron that a law breaker would be setting in the Assembly making laws, when he or she is convicted.However in 1951, when Jawahar Lal Nehru was the first Prime Minister, the lawmakers decided to include a clause,Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act that allowed convicted lawmakers to continue attending, provided they filed an appeal to the higher court within three months to get a stay of the conviction. As a result you had a situation where according to the Financial Times, you had 162 out of the 543 elected Members of Parliament had criminal cases against them. Similarly according to the Press Trust of India at the state legislative level you had 1,258 out of 4,032 sitting lawmaker facing criminal cases, roughly about 30 percent.
According to the Economic Times of July 14-20,2013details of the cases against our so called "leaders" are as follows:
1460 MPs & MlAs who have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits submitted against themselves.
688 MPs & MLAs who have declared serious criminal cases against themselves
162 Lok Sabha MPs who face criminal cases
1,258 MLAs from all states assemblies who face criminal cases
74% share of MLAs of 2009 Jharkhand Assembly who face criminal cases , the highest in the country
31% share of MPs & MlAs or the Bharatia Janata Party who face criminal cases
21%share of Congress MPs & MLAs who face criminal cases
A concern is now being raised by the politicians that frivolous cases may be filed against them in friendly courts which would lead to their disbarment. Perhaps the lawmakers will now better appreciate how the common public feels when they are faced by intimidation by the bureaucrats and cases linger on for decades.
Hopefully the Supreme Court broom will continue on its mission to clean up the politics of the country.
You would have thought that this was a oxymoron that a law breaker would be setting in the Assembly making laws, when he or she is convicted.However in 1951, when Jawahar Lal Nehru was the first Prime Minister, the lawmakers decided to include a clause,Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act that allowed convicted lawmakers to continue attending, provided they filed an appeal to the higher court within three months to get a stay of the conviction. As a result you had a situation where according to the Financial Times, you had 162 out of the 543 elected Members of Parliament had criminal cases against them. Similarly according to the Press Trust of India at the state legislative level you had 1,258 out of 4,032 sitting lawmaker facing criminal cases, roughly about 30 percent.
According to the Economic Times of July 14-20,2013details of the cases against our so called "leaders" are as follows:
1460 MPs & MlAs who have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits submitted against themselves.
688 MPs & MLAs who have declared serious criminal cases against themselves
162 Lok Sabha MPs who face criminal cases
1,258 MLAs from all states assemblies who face criminal cases
74% share of MLAs of 2009 Jharkhand Assembly who face criminal cases , the highest in the country
31% share of MPs & MlAs or the Bharatia Janata Party who face criminal cases
21%share of Congress MPs & MLAs who face criminal cases
A concern is now being raised by the politicians that frivolous cases may be filed against them in friendly courts which would lead to their disbarment. Perhaps the lawmakers will now better appreciate how the common public feels when they are faced by intimidation by the bureaucrats and cases linger on for decades.
Hopefully the Supreme Court broom will continue on its mission to clean up the politics of the country.
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