Provision on automatic disqualification of lawmakers is drastic, courts need to be careful while sentencing: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday orally remarked that automatic disqualification of parliamentarians upon conviction is a drastic measure and, therefore, courts need to be careful when it comes to sentencing lawmakers..A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna made the observation after it was told by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj that Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act leads to automatic disqualification of a parliamentarians soon after they are convicted for imprisonment of two years or more."But this section is very drastic.. that is why you have to be careful thinking about sentence," Justice Joseph remarked..The top court was hearing two pleas. One was filed by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and (former) Member of Parliament (MP) from Lakshadweep PP Mohammad Faizal who said that even though his conviction in an attempt to murder case has been suspended, he has not been reinstated to Parliament.The other was a plea by the Union Territory seeking a stay of the Kerala High Court order that had suspended his conviction and sentence. The bench had in February refused an interim stay but issued notice in the Union Territory's petition..When the matter was called out for hearing today morning, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Faizal, informed the bench that the Lok Sabha secretariat has notified restoration of Faizal's membership to the lower house. "It took nearly two months for the Lok Sabha to restore the membership. However, our writ petition could be disposed of now," Singhvi submitted. Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy tried to intervene in the matter and sought an audience submitting that she represents the complainant in the case. However, the bench refused any audience and proceeded to dispose of the writ petition. It then took up for hearing the appeal filed by the Lakshadweep administration challenging the order passed by the Kerala High Court suspending his 10 years sentence and conviction under charges of attempt to murder.The bench said that it was prepared to hear the said appeal; however, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought an adjournment.The bench, therefore, adjourned the matter for April 24..On January 11, the Kavaratti Sessions Court had convicted four persons, including Faizal, for attempting to murder Padanath Salih, the son-in-law of former Union Minister and Indian National Congress leader, PM Sayeed, in relation to a political controversy during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. All four accused were sentenced to undergo 10 years of rigorous imprisonment by the trial court.The very next day, on January 12, the four convicts moved an appeal before the High Court. They also filed applications to suspend their conviction and sentence and release them on bail during the pendency of their appeal.The Kerala High Court on January 25 suspended the conviction and sentence imposed by the trial court prompting the present appeal before the apex court.After the trial court had convicted Faizal, he had been disqualified from holding the office of Member of Parliament and a notification in this regard was also issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.Subsequently, the Election Commission (EC) had also notified bye-elections to his constituency. However, Faizal had then moved the Supreme Court challenging the announcement by the EC to hold bye-elections.The Supreme Court had disposed of that plea on January 27 after the EC assured the top court that it will act in line with the Kerala High Court order suspending the conviction.