New Delhi : Ansari, a five-time assembly member and two-time parliamentarian, was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha on May 1 after being convicted and sentenced to four years in prison
The Supreme Court on Thursday suspended the conviction of disqualified BSP MP Afzal Ansari in a 2007 Gangster Act case, paving the way for the restoration of his status as a lawmaker but subject to the conditions that he will not be able to participate in the proceedings of the House nor can he cast his vote or draw perks.
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The court, however, allowed Ansari to contest the next general election in 2024 while directing the Election Commission not to notify the bye-election for Ansari’s Ghazipur parliamentary constituency until his appeal against the conviction in the 2007 case is decided by the Allahabad high court. Clarifying that the electoral fate of Ansari, if elected in 2024, will depend on the outcome of his appeal, the court set a deadline of June 30, 2024, for the high court to render its decision.
Ansari, a five-time assembly member and two-time parliamentarian, was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha on May 1 after being convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.
Allowing Ansari’s appeal in part, a three-judge bench, by 2:1, noted that the facts of the case required suspending Ansari’s conviction because not only he stood convicted only in one case out of the seven FIRs lodged against him but also since the orders of the subordinate courts suggested there was no cogent evidence to establish that Ansari had been indulging in anti-social activities and crimes such as murder or ransom.
In their majority opinion, justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, further noted that in instances where the continuance of conviction would lead to irreparable damage and where the convict cannot be compensated in any monetary terms or otherwise in case of acquittal at a later time, that by itself carves out an exceptional situation.
Justice Dipankar Datta, dissenting from majority, held that generalising the exclusive concept of “irreversible consequences” for lawmakers would entitle them to an automatic stay on conviction whereas it is necessary to maintain a balance between the right of electorate’s representation and the enforcement of legal accountability within the democratic framework.
The majority judgment, however, pointed out that the Supreme Court, through an array of judgments, has opined that Section 389(1) of the CrPC, empowering courts to suspend conviction and sentence, should not be interpreted in a narrow manner when there are irreversible consequences.
“It would thus be appropriate for the courts to balance the interests of protecting the integrity of the electoral process on one hand, while also ensuring that constituents are not bereft of their right to be represented, merely consequent to a threshold opinion, which is open to further judicial scrutiny,” said the majority opinion.
While partly allowing Ansari’s appeal, the majority view also took note of an argument by senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented the disqualified BSP lawmaker, that Ansari would suffer irreversible harm if the conviction is not stayed since he would remain disqualified for a total of 10 years and would not be able to thus participate even in the general elections scheduled for 2024.
The Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1951, provides that a legislator sentenced to a jail term for not less than two years shall remain disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release.
The majority judgment further emphasised that although concerns over “moral turpitude” of lawmakers and criminal backgrounds of politicians may carry relevance within the context of elected representatives, the courts are bound to construe the law in its present form and confine their deliberations to the facets explicitly outlined under the relevant statutes. “This is especially true when it is solely motivated by the convicted individual’s status as a political representative, with the aim of disqualification pursuant to the RPA,” it added.
A special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur had on April 29 convicted Ansari and his brother Mukhtar Ansari, an ex-legislator. It awarded a 10-year imprisonment to Mukhtar Ansari while Afzal Ansari was handed four years in jail.
The brothers were booked under the Gangster Act in connection with the murder of the Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Krishnanad Rai in November 2005 and the kidnapping-murder of Varanasi trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997, among other charges.
On July 24, the Allahabad high court refused to suspend Afzal Ansari’s conviction but granted him bail. He appealed against the judgment of the special court, which also fined him ₹1 lakh.
