Develop mechanism to expel criminal MPs: EC to state governments

A letter has been sent to the chief secretaries of all states by the Election Commission that asks for a mechanism to be put in place so that the criminal conviction of an MP or MLA is immediately communicated to the Speaker of the House. The disqualification of the MP or MLA under the Supreme Court order should then set in immediately from the date of the conviction, the letter said. In order to ensure that cases do not go unnoticed, the letter calls on state governments to send in a monthly report on conviction cases, if any, of sitting MPs and MLAs. [caption id=“attachment_1017949” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representative image. Reuters[/caption] “The statement may be submitted to the Commission by 15th of every month through the Chief Electoral Officer of the State,” says the letter, which also has a model format for the report enclosed with it. The letter references the Supreme Court decision taken in July, which struck down a provision in the electoral law that protects a convicted lawmaker from disqualification on the ground of pendency of appeal in higher courts. A total of 1,460 MPs and MLAs have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits submitted to Election Commission before contesting elections. An analysis of affidavits filed by 4,807 sitting MPs and MLAs carried out by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) in the wake of July’s Supreme Court directions revealed that 688 (14 percent) of the total analysed have declared serious criminal cases against themselves. With inputs from PTI.