Jailed NCP leaders Malik, Deshmukh move SC for participation in Maha floor test

Jailed Nationalist Congress Party NCP MLAs Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to participate in the Maharashtra Assembly floor testA vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala was told by advocate Sudhanshu S Choudhuri that the two MLAs have been booked for offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA and are in jailHe said the two leaders want to participate in the Maharashtra legislative assembly floor test scheduled to be held on Thursday at 11 amChoudhuri said they are moving an intervention application which may be heard in the evening after the plea of Shiv Sena leader Sunil Prabhu challenging the decision taken by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari asking the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA government to prove majority on ThursdayThe bench then said it would take up their application at 530 pmOn June 20 the top court declined the plea of Malik and Deshmukh seeking temporary release from prison to cast their votes in the Maharashtra Legislative Council electionAlso read Maha LIVE Rebel MLAs await SC hearing will leave for Goa in eveningA vacation bench had however issued notice to the Maharashtra government and others in the case and agreed to examine the issue relating to the interpretation of Section 625 of the Representation of the People Act 1951 which bars jailed persons from votingldquoIn view of the larger question with respect to interpretation of Section 625 of Representation of the People Act 1951 we are of the view that matter has to be heard in detail Itrsquos open for the parties to complete the pleadings within four weeksldquoOn the question of interim relief taking note of the fact that the constitutional validity of Section 625 was upheld by the Supreme Court in the Anukul Chandra Pradhan Vs Union of India case and S Radhakrishnan Vs Union of India we are not inclined to grant interim reliefrdquo the bench had saidThe Bombay High Court had on June 17 rejected the NCP leadersrsquo plea seeking temporary release from prison for casting their ballots saying the constitutional right to vote is not absoluteMalik who is still a cabinet minister in the state and former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh both of whom are in prison after being arrested in separate money laundering and corruption cases had then sought the courtrsquos permission to be let out of custody ldquofor a few hoursrdquo and ldquounder escort protectionrdquo to voteThe high court had rejected the pleas of the leaders saying that while their lawyers argued that their clients must be permitted to vote to uphold democratic principles the concept of democracy ldquotranscended electoral democracyrdquo The embargo in law imposed via section 62 5 of the Representation of the People Act was based on reason the high court had said adding that it has been imposed to ensure ldquopurity of electoral process and probity of the participants thereinrdquo The two leaders had moved the court earlier contending that as they are members of the Legislative Assembly and representatives of their respective constituencies they ought to be given the opportunity to vote in the Council electionldquoThe claim to the exercise of this constitutional right can by no stretch of the imagination be said to be absoluterdquo the high court had said in the judgementEarlier Malik and Deshmukh had moved the courts for temporary bail for voting in the June 10 Rajya Sabha election from Maharashtra but were denied reliefThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever