Enough of their immunity

In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court of India recently said, “A right to vote is a statutory right, the law gives it, and the law takes it away. Persons convicted of crime are kept away from elections. The court has no hesitation in interpreting the Constitution and the Laws framed under it, that persons in the lawful custody of the police also will not be voters, in which case, they will neither be electors. The law temporarily takes away the power of such persons to go anywhere near the election scene.” Post this judgement, any MPs and MLAs convicted of a crime won’t be allowed to contest for election.

Obviously, going by the numbers of criminals in our legislature, this one judgement comes as a big relief. Such ban would reduce the number of criminals entering the legislatures and further denting the political system of the nation. But then on the flip side, this law can also be used as a tool for settling scores by political rivalries. In order to stop a promising candidate from contesting an election, the rival parties can fabricate situation and trap a candidate in a judicial case thus leading to conviction.

However, this judgement can only physically stop a convict from contesting an election but fails to keep a check on his virtual influence. Even in past, jailed politicians made their puppets contest election (on their behalf) and virtually ran the system from the prison itself. SC should further add clauses that would ensure no virtual participation too. In any circumstance, a contestant should neither be allowed to use the name (and fame) of any convicted politicians nor be allowed to represent themselves as a representative of a politicians who is behind the bars.

SC and Election commission should scrutinise this law in their review meeting and make its one of the strongest law in Indian political system.