On Friday, a notice from the parliament said “Rahul Gandhi stands disqualified from the member of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction,”.On the 23rd of March, the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition Rahul Gandhi stand disqualified as a member of Lok Sabha.
Why has Rahul Gandhi been disqualified?-
On 23rd March, Thursday, Rahul Gandhi was found guilty in a criminal defamation case by Surat court for his “Modi surname” remark in which he said “Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, Narendra Modi. How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?” For his remark, BJP MLA Purnesh Modi filed a criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his “Modi surname remark”. Rahul Gandhi was convicted and sentenced to two years of imprisonment. Gandhi was convicted under Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court. Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the parliament according to Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act,1951,which disqualifies representatives on conviction. Section 8(3) states that if a person gets convicted for any offence and sentenced to at least two years of imprisonment, she or he will be disqualified from the parliament and the tenure of disqualification is six years from the release of the convict from prison.
What next for Rahul Gandhi –
Now the question arises what next for Rahul Gandhi? What are the paths left for Rahul Gandhi to walk in order to get back his seat in the parliament? The only way Rahul Gandhi can get back his Lok Sabha seat is if a higher court gives its verdict in favor of Rahul Gandhi and stays the conviction by the Surat court. Also, the higher court must stay the conviction and not merely stay the sentence.