New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday suspended disqualified Bahujan Samaj Party parliamentarian Afzal Ansari’s conviction in a 2007 Gangster Act case, restoring his status as a lawmaker. The apex court said it will be subjected to the condition that Ansari will not be able to vote or draw perks though he can attend the House proceedings.
A bench comprising justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Ujjal Bhuyan, partially allowed Ansari’s appeal. Justices Kant and Bhuyan ruled in favour of Ansari’s plea, however, Justice Datta said that Ansari’s appeal should not succeed. The apex court set a deadline of June 30, 2024, for the Allahabad High Court to decide on his plea against the conviction. Detailed judgment in the case will be uploaded later in the day.
In April, a special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipur convicted Ansari and his brother Mukhtar Ansari, an ex-legislator and awarded a 10-year imprisonment to Mukhtar Ansari.
The majority view said that Ansari can contest the next Lok Sabha election in 2024 and also the outcome of this election will depend on the decision of the high court in his appeal.
During the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represented Afzal Ansari, submitted that the Ghazipur constituency will go unrepresented in the Lok Sabha if his client’s conviction is not stayed. He referred to the top court’s decision in a criminal defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The majority view held that two interests in a democracy should be balanced by a constitutional court, which are the integrity of the electoral process and the rights of the people of the constituencies.
Ansari was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha on May 1 after being convicted and sentenced to four years in prison. He is a five-time assembly member and two-time parliamentarian.
The Ansari brothers were booked under the Gangster Act in connection with the murder of the BJP legislator Krishnanad Rai in November 2005 and the kidnapping-murder of Varanasi trader Nand Kishore Rungta in 1997. The high court, in July, declined to suspend Afzal Ansari’s conviction but granted him bail. He appealed against the judgment of the special court, which also fined him Rs 1 lakh.
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