Lawyers elected as lawmakers can practise in courts, said Supreme Court.
The following is the chronology of events leading up to the Supreme Court on Tuesday holding that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting polls, and termed as "unsettling" the criminalisation of politics in the world's largest democracy.
March 8, 2016: Three-judge bench of SC refers the matter to a five-judge Constitution bench comprising CJI Dipak Misra and Justices RF Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.
December 14, 2017: The Supreme Court directs the Centre to set up 12 special courts to exclusively deal with cases involving politicians.
March 11, 2018: The Centre tells the Supreme Court that states and Union Territories have been asked to set up special fast-track courts to try 3,816 criminal cases pending against 1,765 lawmakers.
March 21: The Centre tells SC that political parties appointing office-bearers are part of their autonomy.
August 3: Congress leader Jitendra Patwari moves SC opposing the mandatory transfer of all types of pending criminal cases against lawmakers to fast track courts set up exclusively to deal with cases involving MPs and MLAs.
August 9: AG KK Venugopal says the issue squarely fell under the domain of Parliament.
August 21: The Supreme Court dubs criminalisation of politics as "rot".
August 28: SC reserves verdict.
September 25: Terming as "unsettling" the criminalisation of politics in the world's largest democracy, SC asks Parliament to formulate a law to curb the menace.