The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by Kerala’s solar scam accused, Saritha S. Nair, against the rejection of her nomination papers for contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate from the Ernakulam constituency.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde refused her appeal on the ground that Ms. Nair, who was convicted in two criminal cases, remains disqualified under Section 8(3) of the Representation of People Act from contesting elections unless her conviction has been stayed.
Mere suspension of her sentence would not qualify her to contest the polls.
“Disqualification under Section 8(3) will continue so long as there is no stay of conviction. In the case on hand, the petitioner could not obtain a stay of conviction but obtained only a stay of execution of the sentence. Hence her nominations were validly rejected by the Returning Officer,” Justice V. Ramasubramanian said.
Under Section 8(3), a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his or her release. “We hold that the petitioner (Ms. Nair) was disqualified from contesting the elections in terms of Section 8(3) of the Act. In such circumstances, she could not have maintained an election petition as ‘a candidate at such election’... Therefore, the High Court was right in not venturing into an exercise in futility, by taking up the election petition for trial,” the Supreme Court upheld the Kerala High Court decision to reject her plea.
However, the top court said the High Court was wrong in rejecting her election petition on the ground of existence of “incurable of defects”.