Two candidates currently imprisoned on terror charges have emerged victorious in the recent parliamentary elections, creating an unusual scenario for the 18th Lok Sabha, which will be formed soon. Despite their imprisonment, they possess the constitutional right to take their oaths as Members of Parliament (MPs).
The Election Commission announced the Lok Sabha poll results on Tuesday. Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh won the Khadoor Sahib seat in Punjab, while terror financing accused Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, secured the Baramulla seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
Engineer Rashid has been detained in Tihar jail since August 9, 2019, on terror funding charges. Amritpal Singh was arrested in April 2023 under the National Security Act and has been held in Assam’s Dibrugarh prison.
The question now arises whether these newly-elected, jailed MPs will be allowed to take their oaths, and if so, how. Constitution expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achari emphasized the importance of adhering to constitutional provisions in such cases.
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“Being sworn in as a Member of Parliament is a constitutional right,” Achari stated. However, due to their imprisonment, both Engineer Rashid and Amritpal Singh must seek permission from authorities to be escorted to Parliament for the oath ceremony.
Once they have taken the oath, they will have to return to prison.
Further explaining the legalities, Achari referred to Article 101(4) of the Constitution, which deals with the absence of members from both Houses of Parliament without prior sanction from the Chair. After taking the oath, the MPs will write to the Speaker, informing them of their inability to attend the House. The Speaker will then refer their requests to the House Committee on Absence of Members.
The committee will recommend whether the member should be allowed to remain absent from House proceedings. The recommendation is then put to a vote in the House by the Speaker.
If either Engineer Rashid or Amritpal Singh are convicted and sentenced to a minimum of two years in jail, they would immediately lose their seats in the Lok Sabha as per a 2013 Supreme Court judgment. This ruling mandates that MPs and MLAs be disqualified in such cases, striking down Section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act, which previously allowed convicted MPs and MLAs three months to appeal against their convictions.
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