New Delhi: As Amritpal Singh and Sheikh Abdul Rashid currently lodged in prison on terror charges emerged winners on the respective seats they were contesting from in the Lok Sabha election 2024, it remains to be seen whether the duo will be allowed to take oath, and if so, will they be able to enter the parliament and represent their respective seats.
While radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh won Punjab's Khadoor Sahib seat, terror financing accused Sheikh Abdul Rashid, also known as Engineer Rashid, emerged victorious on Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla seat with both overpowering bigwigs contesting against them.
Engineer Rashid has been lodged in Tihar jail since August 9, 2019, on charges of terror financing while as Singh was arrested in April 2023 under the National Security Act and sent to the Dibrugarh prison in Assam. Constitution expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achari as quoted by news agency PTI, emphasised the importance of following the constitutional provisions in such cases.
Achari said that while being sworn in as a Member of Parliament is a constitutional right. But because they are currently in prison, Engineer Rashid and Singh must seek permission from authorities to be escorted to Parliament for the oath-taking ceremony, he said adding once they have taken the oath, they will have to return to prison.
Achari also cited Article 101(4) of the Constitution which deals with the absence of members from both Houses of Parliament without prior sanction of the Chair. Achari said that after they have taken oath, the two MP elects will write to the Speaker, informing him or her about 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 or not. The recommendation is then put to vote in the House by the Speaker. It is learnt that if Engineer Rashid or Singh are to be convicted and jailed for a minimum of two years, they would lose their seats in the Lok Sabha immediately as per the Supreme Court judgment of 2013, which holds that MPs and MLAs would be disqualified in such cases.
The SC decision struck down section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act, which earlier allowed convicted MPs and MLAs three months to appeal against their convictions.
Engineer Rashid is lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi since August 2019 in the run-up to the central government's decision to read down Articles 370 and 35A, which provided constitutional guarantees to Jammu and Kashmir.
Amritpal Singh on the other hand, was arrested on April 23 last year following the violent storming of a police station in Ajnala. He was later booked under the NSA and lodged at Dibrugarh central jail in Assam along with nine of his aides.
