Three weeks after the Rajasthan High Court directed BJP MLA Kanwarlal Meena to surrender immediately, and almost two weeks after the Supreme Court dismissed his petition, the Assembly membership of the Anta MLA was formally terminated on Friday.
With the Supreme Court-stipulated two-week relief coming to an end, the convicted MLA surrendered before a Manohar Thana court in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar district on May 21.
In a notification, Rajasthan Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani said Meena’s membership has been terminated from the date of his conviction. Meena was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in a 2005 case where he had threatened a public official with a revolver.
The development comes on a day when the Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully filed a petition in the High Court against the delay in terminating Meena’s membership. Since the High Court upheld his conviction earlier this month, Congress leaders have accused Speaker Devnani of partisanship, citing the delay. Jully said that the party wrote to the Speaker five times, apart from writing letters to the Chief Secretary, the Election Commission, and meeting the Governor.
“Satyamev Jayate, today the truth has won, the Constitution has won. They took 23 days to follow the Constitution, which should have been followed on day one itself. The Congress party wants a rule of the Constitution in the state and the country. But the manner in which Meena’s file was moved was quite a sight. We had to struggle so much,” Jully said Friday.
On Friday, Devnani said that “as soon as the legal opinion of the Advocate General was received at 10:30 am, Meena was declared as disqualified.”
Devnani said that he “does not work under any kind of pressure” and that he takes “decisions in accordance with law and justice only after studying every aspect related to any matter. Even before this case, the Speakers of the Vidhan Sabha have taken a lot of time on many issues related to the Vidhan Sabha.” Following Friday’s decision, Devnani asked the Congress party to desist from doing politics over the issue.
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The case in which Meena has been disqualified pertains to February 2005, when Ramniwas Mehta, then an RAS officer and posted as Sub Divisional Officer, Aklera, was informed of a group of people in Manohar Thana, Jhalawar, blocking the road to demand re-poll in a sarpanch election. Half an hour after Mehta and others reached the spot, Meena arrived with 6-7 men in a vehicle, took out a revolver and allegedly aimed it at Mehta’s head, asking him to “announce a re-poll within two minutes or get killed.”
Mehta, as per records, told Meena that “a revolver can kill but not enforce a re-poll.” Mehta, promoted as an IAS officer, is currently posted as Secretary, Rajasthan Public Service Commission (RPSC). During the hearing in the Supreme Court, the three-member Bench was told that Meena had 27 cases against him; however, his lawyers had told The Indian Express that he was acquitted in almost all these cases.
While not the first in the state, it will be a rare instance for a sitting MLA to be disqualified in Rajasthan. The last such instance was in December 2016, when the then Assembly Speaker Kailash Meghwal had terminated the Assembly membership of B L Kushwah, who was with the Bahujan Samaj Party, after he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘honour’ killing.
For two-time MLA Meena, 50, who is considered close to former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, it might put a pause on his more direct involvement in politics; however, like Kushwah, who fielded his wife, it may not mean the end of the road.
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With Meena’s disqualification, the Rajasthan Assembly strength comes down to 199 once again. Devnani said that a notification of vacancy in Baran’s Anta constituency has been issued.
The disqualification brings the BJP’s Assembly strength to 118, while Congress currently has 66 MLAs, apart from 8 Independents, four of the Bharat Adivasi Party, two of the Bahujan Samaj Party and one of the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
According to the Speaker, Meena has been disqualified under Article 191 (1) (E) of the Indian Constitution read with Section 8 (3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
As per Article 191 (1)(E), a person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council of a State if he is so disqualified by or under any law made by Parliament. And as per Section 8 (3) of the Representation of the People Act, a legislator is disqualified if he or she is sentenced for more than two years. Additionally, they shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years after their release.