Union Cabinet Clears an Ordinance to Protect Convicted MLAs and MPs Tuesday Sep 24,2013

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday Sep 24,2013 Negating a Supreme Court Ruling, cleared an ordinance that will protect convicted MPs and MLAs from immediate disqualification, provided their appeal against the conviction and sentence is admitted by a higher court within 90 days, and both the conviction and the sentence are stayed.

Till the matter is settled, the MP or the MLA, the ordinance says, will not be entitled to vote nor draw a salary and allowances, but may continue to participate in the proceedings of Parliament or State Legislatures, as the case may be

Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal told that the government, while clearing the ordinance, had simultaneously written to the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha — where the bill was introduced — to send it to the Standing Committee of Parliament. Kapil Sibal said that if the opposition introduced any changes in the bill in the Standing Committee, the Union cabinet would look at those and incorporate them in the bill

The ordinance also comes just over a fortnight after the BJP changed its position on The Representation of the People (Second Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013 — on which this ordinance is based.
The BJP had initially agreed to help the Central Govt pass this bill but later had a change of heart, when it realised this might help RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav

 SC Ruling
The SC judgment of July 10,2013 that pronounced that sitting legislators either jailed on charges, or after conviction, would have to resign their seats forthwith.

The Supreme Court held that chargesheeted Members of Parliament and MLAs, on conviction for offences, will be immediately disqualified from holding membership of the House without being given three months’ time for appeal, as was the case before.

A Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and S.J. Mukhopadhaya struck down as unconstitutional Section 8 (4) of the Representation of the People Act that allows convicted lawmakers a three-month period for filing appeal to the higher court and to get a stay of the conviction and sentence. The Bench, however, made it clear that the ruling will be prospective and those who had already filed appeals in various High Courts or the Supreme Court against their convictions would be exempt from it.

The bill relating to those jailed on charges was cleared by Parliament; the one relating to those convicted has now been converted into an ordinance

The ordinance will help convicted MLAs and MPs retain their seats, it cannot help them to contest elections again: for that they would have to go to court once more to seek a stay again on the sentence and conviction, as the BJP MP from Amritsar, Navjot Singh Sidhu, did after he was convicted of murder in 2006

Note-The Ordinance comes 6 days ahead of a possible conviction of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav: the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court dealing with a case relating to the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs. 37 crores from the Chaibasa treasury in the 1996 fodder scam, that has completed its hearings, has reserved its order for September 30,2013

On Tuesday Sep 24,2013 it is learnt that Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had telephoned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ahead of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting and told him that such an ordinance would damage the party’s chances in the coming Assembly polls in Delhi

President Pranab Mukherjee's Query on the Ordinance
President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday Sep 26,2013 asked Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Law Minister Kapil Sibal to brief him on why it was considered necessary to clear an ordinance in such haste to protect convicted MPs and MLAs from immediate disqualification.

The President’s query, a day after he received a copy of the ordinance, came even as a string of Congress leaders, too, publicly expressed discomfort with the measure approved earlier this week by the Cabinet, adding to the chorus of naysayers in the Opposition. 

On Thursday Sep 26,2013, a delegation of BJP leaders went to Rashtrapati Bhavan to present a memorandum to Pranab Mukherjee, questioning the timing of and need for the ordinance.

BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley address the media at Rashtrapati Bhawan after meeting President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday Sep 26,2013

Constitutionally, the President has the right to send the ordinance back to the Cabinet once to review its decision. But if the Cabinet sends it back, he will have to sign it. 

Opposition to the Ordinance

BJP General Secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy said
"BJP is shocked at this Ordinance. We would like to know whose great idea it is--is it Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Rahul Gandhi or is it UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi''

The Left Parties while opposing the decision said the UPA government was "repeatedly using the Ordinance route which is undemocratic''

The Aam Aadmi Party said it would request the President not to ratify it; otherwise, the party would challenge it in the Supreme Court. “People are shocked at what the UPA government is doing. We have requested President Pranab Mukherjee to give us a hearing before he signs the ordinance.” AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal told

Rahul Gandhi Denounce Ordinance

In a major embarrassment to the UPA government, Rahul Gandhi on Friday Sep 27,2013 denounced the controversial ordinance to negate the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers as “complete nonsense” and said what “our government has done is wrong“.

Making a surprise brief appearance at a meet-the-press programme of his party’s general secretary Ajay Maken at the Press Club in New Delhi, he said the ordinance should be “torn up and thrown away”.

Union Cabinet Withdraws Ordinance Wed Oct 2,2013
The Congress Core Group — of which both the Prime Minister and Congress President Sonia Gandhi are members — too met on Oct 2,2013 Wednesday morning on the issue. The Prime Minister called up the leaders of the UPA’s allied parties — the NCP’s Sharad Pawar, the RLD’s Ajit Singh and the National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah — ahead of the cabinet meeting. He told them of his intention of withdrawing the ordinance. 
Five days after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi publicly censured the government, the Union Cabinet, at a brisk 20-minute meeting on Oct 2,2013 Wednesday evening, decided to withdraw the controversial ordinance on convicted lawmakers, as well as the Bill that sought to amend the Representation of the People Act on which it was based

Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Manish Tiwari described the cabinet decision as “unanimous”