Mumbai A special MP/MLAs court on Wednesday concluded hearing the pleas filed by former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh and minority development minister Nawab Malik seeking permission to exercise their franchise for the six Rajya Sabha seats. The court said it would pronounce the orders on Thursday.
Deshmukh and Malik, currently in judicial custody, had applied to the special court, seeking permission to cast their votes at the RS elections, scheduled to be held on June 10.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had opposed the pleas, contending that prisoners do not have voting rights under the Representation of the Peoples (RP) Act, 1950. The agency had referred to section 62(5) of the RP Act which states that “no person shall vote at any election if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or is in the lawful custody of the police.”
On Wednesday, senior advocate Abad Ponda argued on behalf of Deshmukh that the restriction to vote was only to persons confined in prison under sentence of imprisonment and custody was not confinement as contemplated under the RP Act. He maintained that confinement starts only after conviction and not before that and therefore the restriction was not applicable to the NCP leader.
Senior advocate Amit Desai, representing Malik, said a person with criminal antecedents can stand for election even while sitting in jail and if a person accused of crime, but not in prison can vote, under-trial prisoners lodged in jail cannot also be denied the right to vote. He added that Malik is currently in hospital and not in prison and the court can certainly grant him permission to go to Vidhan Bhavan and cast his vote.
Additional solicitor general Anil Singh, on the other hand, contended that the section says a person confined in prison cannot vote at any election and therefore it was immaterial when under a sentence or as an under-trial prisoner. “We have to interpret the section as it is, in plain and simple language,” Singh said.
Deshmukh is arrested in connection with the corruption case against him, whereas Malik was arrested in connection with a money laundering case registered against fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and some of his close associates.
