- Monday, March 03, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will not be disqualified as a member of the Indian parliament if the appellate court stays his conviction over a 2019 ‘Modi’ defamation case and suspends the two-year jail term that was awarded to him by a court in Surat in the western Indian state of Gujarat on Thursday (23), legal experts said.
Rakesh Dwivedi, a senior lawyer and constitutional law expert, recalled the Supreme Court of India’s 2013 and 2018 verdicts in the Lily Thomas and Lok Prahari matters, respectively, and said suspension of sentence and stay of conviction were necessary to avoid disqualification as a lawyer under India’s Representation of the People Act.
“The appellate court can suspend the conviction and the sentence and grant him bail. In that case there will be no disqualification,” he was quoted as saying the Press Trust of India.
He added, “However the politicians must choose their words carefully to avoid getting entangled with law.”
The debate over possibilities of Gandhi being disqualified as an MP must take note of the legal position enumerated in the apex court judgements and the relevant provisions of the RP Act, he said.
A former senior official of the Election Commission of India and an expert on electoral laws said on the condition of anonymity that to prevent being disqualified as a lawmaker, Gandhi also needs to get his conviction stayed.
He said suspension of sentence was different from suspension of conviction.
“The position as per the Lily Thomas judgment, a conviction which carries a sentence of two years or more will automatically result in disqualification. In a later judgment in the Lok Prahari case, the apex court said on appeal if the conviction is suspended, the disqualification will also remain suspended,” he said.
He added the former Congress chief will have to get a stay on conviction also from a higher court.
P D T Achari, former secretary general of India’s Lok Sabha and a Constitution expert, said the disqualification period begins as soon as the sentence is announced. He said Gandhi is free to appeal and if the appellate court stays the conviction and the sentence, then the disqualification will remain suspended.
The disqualification continues six years after the sentence is completed or served.
“That means the disqualification will last for eight years (in case he is disqualified),” he said, adding that a disqualified person can neither contest, poll or vote for a certain period.
He was of the opinion that disqualification arises out of sentence, not conviction alone.
“Therefore, if the sentence has been suspended by the trial court itself, that means his membership does not get affected. The disqualification has not come into effect,” he said.
In the Lok Prahari case, a three judge-bench of the top court, of which Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud was also a part, in 2018 had termed as “untenable” the disqualification if the conviction of a lawmaker is stayed by an appellate court.
Gandhi has been serving as the parliamentarian since 2004. After representing the constituency of Amethi for three times, he lost that seat to central minister Smriti Irani in 2019 but won from Wayanad in the southern state of Karnataka.
(With PTI inputs)
