File pic: President Pranab Mukherjee
President Pranab Mukherjee today asked to be briefed by the government on the urgent need to bring an ordinance that protects convicted MPs and MLAs from disqualification.
Sources said Mr Mukherjee is believed to be "unsure of the compelling reasons" for the ordinance, which the union cabinet hurriedly approved this week. It overturns a Supreme Court order disqualifying lawmakers immediately after conviction and provides that MPs or MLAs convicted in a corruption case or sentenced to two years in jail can stay on without a salary or voting rights if they appeal to a higher court.
President Mukherjee, who received the ordinance yesterday for approval, was briefed by Law Minister Kapil Sibal, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath this evening.
Top government sources after meeting said the Government explained to the President the need to ensure there is no vacuum in the law. Sources also said it is a misleading statement that the government is bringing back the disqualification clause. "We are not replicating the disqualification clause, we are honouring the Supreme Court's order... We are leaving it to the courts to decide whether to grant stay or not," the sources said, adding that the convicted MPs and MLAs will have no rights.
Earlier in the evening, the BJP met the president and requested him to return what party leader Sushma Swaraj described as an "illegal, immoral and unconstitutional" ordinance.
The party has alleged that the ordinance was timed to protect politicians like Lalu Yadav, a loyal ally of the minority Manmohan Singh government, who faces disqualification if a Jharkhand court convicts him on Monday in the multi-crore fodder scam.
Even some Congress leaders have questioned the ordinance, including union minister Milind Deora - known to be close to Congress number 2 Rahul Gandhi.
"Legalities aside allowing convicted MPs/MLAs to retain seats in the midst of an appeal can endanger already eroding public faith in democracy," Mr Deora tweeted today, in a major embarrassment to the government.
Digvijaya Singh had said yesterday, "...it would have been better if a consensus was arrived at. Maybe the government had its compulsion."
The Congress tried to downplay the criticism within. "We don't see this as indiscipline. What they have said is morally right but the government also has the responsibility to protect Constitutional rights," said party spokesperson Raj Babbar.
Several activists and people from different forums are planning to flood the President with messages asking him not to sign a measure they say tries to protect tainted lawmakers who have lost the right to decide on laws.