Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader, was barred from the Lok Sabha after the court gave him a two-year prison sentence in the criminal defamation case involving his remark about the “Modi surname,” and a plea has been filed in the Supreme Court opposing his restoration.
Gandhi was given a two-year prison term, which violated the terms of the Representation of the People Act and rendered him ineligible to serve as an MP in Kerala’s Wayanad. However, the apex court stayed the conviction and Rahul Gandhi’s membership was restored. Later, Ashok Pandey, advocate from Lucknow, petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the Lok Sabha’s decision of restoring Gandhi’s membership.
Pandey said that once Gandhi lost his Lok Sabha membership, after being convicted in a criminal defamation case and was awarded two years of imprisonment, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha was not right in restoring back his lost membership.
The plea submitted that once a member of Parliament or of a state legislature loses his office by operation of Law in Article 102, 191 of the Constitution read with section 8 (3) of the Representation of People Act 1951, he will continue to be disqualified till he is acquitted from the charges levelled against him by some higher court.d his conviction and thereafter his Lok Sabha membership was restored.
“Rahul Gandhi lost his membership of Lok Sabha when he was convicted for defamation and was awarded two years sentence and as such the Speaker was not right in restoring his membership,” the plea stated.
The petition further submitted, “Speaker of Lok Sabha was right in declaring the loss of membership of Rahul Gandhi when he was convicted by the trial court and was awarded two two-year sentence but he was wrong when on the basis of an order passed by the Supreme Court staying the conviction, the order passed by him on January 13 was restored vide order impugned dated August 7.”
On March 23, a Congress leader was found guilty of violating sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) (defamation) and given a two-year prison sentence. Purnesh Modi brought the case.
Rahul Gandhi took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Kolar, Karnataka, in April 2019 by asking, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”
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