Friday, Aug 23, 2002
Friday, Aug 23, 2002 |
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By J. Venkatesan and Vinay Kumar
The Government, which is keen on giving effect to the ordinance before the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, finds itself faced with an embarrassment, as the Rashtrapati Bhavan returned the draft ordinance, even as the Election Commission issued the notification for the first phase of the polls. The Union Law Minister, Jana Krishnamurthy, told The Hindu, "the President has sought certain clarifications on the ordinance (which was sent to the President last week for his approval) and I will be replying to them''. Indications are that the Union Cabinet, scheduled to meet on Saturday, is likely to consider and answer the President's queries before sending the ordinance back to the Rashtrapati Bhavan for approval. According to highly-placed sources, the President's decision to seek clarification is a sequel to the opposition voiced by a group of eminent citizens from across the country that the ordinance, if approved, would violate the fundamental right of a citizen to know the antecedents of the candidate before electing him to the Legislative Assemblies or Parliament. The signatories, who included Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Kuldip Nayar, journalist and Rajya Sabha member, N. Bhaskar Rao of the Centre for Media Studies, Syed Shahid Mahdi, Jamila Millia Vice-Chancellor, R.H. Tahiliani, former Navy Chief and Kamini Jaiswal, advocate, pleaded with the President not to sign the ordinance. They said the ordinance was unconstitutional and urged the President to exercise his extraordinary powers to refer the matter to the Supreme Court for its opinion. The ordinance gives effect to the suggestions made at the all-party meetings held by the Government and the provision that candidates chargesheeted for two offences could not contest election was deleted. The draft RPA amendment Bill virtually nullifies the Election Commission's June 28 notification giving effect to the Supreme Court directions and dispenses with furnishing of information in an affidavit by candidates about their criminal antecedents, assets and liabilities and educational qualification. The draft Bill was initially circulated by Mr. Krishnamurthy to various political parties and leaders for their suggestions and comments and after another round of talks, the controversial clause on "charge sheets'' was deleted and sent to the President in the form of an ordinance as the Bill could not be presented in the monsoon session of Parliament. The furnishing of educational qualification of the candidate at the time of filing nomination has also been dispensed with in the Bill, which defines heinous crimes as murder, treason, kidnapping for ransom, rape, dacoity, dacoity with murder, drug smuggling and causing death by terrorist act.
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