A plea in Supreme Court on Tuesday, challenging Lok Sabha secretariat notification that reinstated former Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the Member of Parliament.
The plea said that once a lawmaker loses his office by operation of law, he can’t be reinstated as an MP until he is acquitted of the charges. “One more question for kind consideration of this Hon’ble Court is as to whether the notification regarding loss of membership of a convicted legislator will be notified by chairman/speaker of the House concerned or it is the domain of the Election Commission of India,” the plea further stated.
The Lok Sabha membership of Gandhi was restored in August, days after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction by a Gujarat court in a defamation case. Gandhi was accorded a warm welcome by Congress and other opposition MPs on his arrival in Parliament.
Rahul Gandhi, whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather were prime ministers, was convicted in March in a case brought by a BJP lawmaker over 2019 comments deemed insulting to Modi and others with the same name, including the lawmaker.
Upon his conviction, Gandhi, 53, lost his parliamentary seat and was jailed for two years but granted bail. The Supreme Court recently suspended the conviction, allowing the senior Congress to return to Parliament and contest next year’s elections.
“I have returned to Parliament after paying my respects to Bapu,” Gandhi later posted on Facebook, referring to Mahatma Gandhi as father.
Lawmakers from Congress and other opposition parties gathered outside Parliament’s entrance to cheer Gandhi and their new alliance called INDIA, or the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance.
The alliance is making plans to run against the BJP in national elections due by May 2024.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the decision to reinstate Gandhi “brings relief to the people of India, and especially to Wayanad”, his constituency in the southern state of Kerala.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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