42 lost membership of Parliament since 1988, maximum 19 in 14th Lok Sabha

The recent disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha has put the spotlight on provisions of an Act which has been used to removed 42 members from Parliament since 1988 with the 14th Lok Sabha witnessing the ouster of 19 lawmakers in connection with the cashforquery scam and crossvotingThe disqualification of these lawmakers have been on various grounds like changing political allegiances for conduct unbecoming of a parliamentarian and after being convicted by a court for crimes that have a jail term of two years or moreThe latest round of disqualification of Congress leader Gandhi NCP leader Mohammad Faizal P P and BSP leader Afzal Ansari came after their conviction by courts with jail terms of more than two year invoked the provisions of the Representation of the People ActThe Act deals with automatic disqualification of MPs and state legislators upon being convicted and sentenced for two years or more in a criminal caseThe disqualification of Faizal who represents Lakshadweep in the Lok Sabha was revoked after he obtained a stay over his conviction and sentence in an attempt to murder case from the Kerala High CourtGandhi has moved the Gujarat High Court to seek relief in the criminal defamation case involving the Modi surname in which a Surat court had sentenced him to two years in jailThe first disqualification of a Lok Sabha member after the antidefection law was enacted in 1985 was that of Lalduhoma a Congress member who filed his nomination papers for the Mizoram Assembly elections as a candidate of the Mizo National Union a party founded by himThe ninth Lok Sabha when the then Janata Dal leader V P Singh formed a coalition government saw nine Lok Sabha members fall foul of the antidefection law which led to their disqualificationHowever it was the 14th Lok Sabha which saw ouster of maximum members from the House 10 for unbecoming conduct as member for accepting bribe for raising questions in Parliament and nine for crossvoting during the Vote of Confidence sought by the UPAI government in July 2008 after the Left front withdrew support to it over the civil nuclear deal with the USSix members of the BJP two from BSP and one each from the Congress and RJD were expelled from the Lok Sabha in 2005 over the cash for query scam One Rajya Sabha member from BSP too was expelled from the HouseAlso readMukhtar Ansaris brother Afzal disqualified as Lok Sabha memberThe expulsions were upheld by the Supreme Court None of these cases were referred to the President for approving the expulsions since the legislature itself is competent to do so Devendra Singh Aswal former Additional Secretary Lok Sabha told PTIThe 10th Lok Sabha when then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao led a coalition government saw four members being disqualified from the House under the antidefection law The Rajya Sabha also has its share of disqualifications under the antidefection law Mufti Mohammad Sayeed 1989 Satyapal Malik 1989 Sharad Yadav 2017 and Ali Anwar 2017Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shibu Soren and Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan were disqualified from the Rajya Sabha in 2001 and 2006 respectively for holding an office of profit While Soren was the Chairman of the Jharkhand Area Autonomous Council Bachchan was the Chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Film Development CouncilA disqualification petition against the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi for holding an office of profit of Chairperson of the National Advisory Council became infructuous as she quit as member of the Lok Sabha To avoid possible political upheaval the Parliament Prevention of Disqualification Act 1959 was amended in 2006 retrospectively wef April 4 1959 and similar petitions became infructuous Aswal who is also a member of the Bar Council of India saidA judgment of the apex Court referred to as the Lily Thomas case laid down the legal position making it clear that any conviction which carries a sentence of two years or more will automatically result in disqualification of an elected representativeThe Lok Sabha Secretariat only has to notify the vacancy by issuing a notification so that the Election Commission can start the process for a bypoll Aswal saidAs a result of the judgement Rajya Sabha member of the Congress Rasheed Masood was disqualified from the upper house due to his conviction in a corruption case RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and JDU member Jagdish Sharma were disqualified from the Lok Sabha following their conviction in the fodder scamThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever