The landmark Supreme Court judgement striking down Section 8(4) of the Representation of the People (RP) Act has hit a legal hurdle. According to Justice K G Balakrishnan, ex-CJI and presently the chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), a five-judge constitution bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti has already upheld the constitutional validity of section 8(4) of the RP Act and the law is that the verdict of the larger bench prevails. The two-judge bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik should have referred it to a larger bench(minimum of seven judges, the ex-CJI said. So according to law the verdict of the five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice Lahoti continues to be the law of the land. Justice Balakrishnan was himself a member of the five-judge bench. The government is already in the process of consulting the political parties as well as legal experts and may challenge the two-judge bench judgement by way of review petition and request the Supreme Court to refer it to the larger bench. For the time being, section 8(4) of the RP act continues to be a valid law. Section 8(4) permits a tainted MP or MLA to continue as member of the house despite conviction, if it is stayed by the appellate court and the sentence is of two years or more. The two-judge bench of the apex court had ruled that if an MP or MLA is awarded two years jail or more he/she shall automatically stand disqualified with immediate affect and jailbirds can neither contest election from jail nor can they vote.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 11:45:01 +0000