The Rajya Sabha today cleared a bill to nullify a recent Supreme Court ruling th at would have made persons

in custody ineligible to contest elections to Parliam ent or state legislatures. The Representation of the People (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013, was pass ed by voice vote amid support from all parties. The Representation of People Act, 1951 has a provision, Section 62(5), that take s away the voting right a person in jail, whether sentenced or facing trial, exc ept in preventive detention. Last month, the court upheld a Patna High Court order that a person denied votin g rights under the section cannot contest elections. The judgment fanned worries that leaders framed and put in custody would lose voting rights and, with it, t he freedom to contest. Law minister Kapil Sibal introduced the Section 62(5). It says that once on the e to be a voter. The bill, if passed by ctively from July 10, 2013, the day the bill saying a proviso had been added to electoral rolls, a person shall not ceas the Lok Sabha, will take effect retrospe court verdict came.

As the name of a jailed person continues to be on the rolls, he or she remains a n elector and can file nominations for an election, the bill says. By reason of t he prohibition to vote under this sub-section, a person whose name has been ente red in the electoral roll shall not cease to be an elector. Sibal said the genesis of politicians were working most accountable class in t, to Election Commission the case was decriminalisation of politics and suggested towards the goal. The political class is, perhaps, the the country. It is accountable to people, to Parliamen and to court.

It is we who have passed anti-defection law and made declarations of assets manda tory for contesting elections. We have furthered the process of accountability. How many institutions in the country have done that? Sibal asked. The minister did not mention courts. But his comments may be seen by some as dir ected at judges who have been reluctant to declare assets. The BJP s Arun Jaitley, ment amounted to making ns. As law and order is aders in some cases and leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said the judg the police the arbiter to decide who can contest electio a state subject, the police could be misused to frame le put them in custody, he said.

If the police pick up somebody on the eve of elections, he will be disqualified. We do not want that kind of a situation, Jaitley added. The BSP s Satish Chandra Mishra also weighed in on the debate, arguing that the ru ling could be misused by parties in power to deny rival leaders the right to con test. The bill will now go to the Lok Sabha.