The two are in judicial custody in connection with two separate cases filed by the central agency.A special court will on Thursday decide on the pleas filed by arrested NCP leaders Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik seeking permission to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on Friday. The court heard daylong arguments by their lawyers and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has opposed the pleas stating that prisoners have no voting rights.
Senior lawyer Amit Desai, representing Malik, said a permanent order was not being sought to attend the Vidhan Sabha but only a permission to be able to go for voting for a few hours with police escort. Desai submitted that as an MLA, Malik was a public representative and had a duty towards his constituency.
“I want to discharge my duty towards my constituency. Courts frequently grant permission to prisoners to light the pyre when a parent dies or to give away a daughter in a wedding considering these as a duty. My ability to cast a vote fails, I am prejudiced, my party is prejudiced,” Desai submitted on behalf of the senior NCP leader.
Senior lawyer Abad Ponda, representing Deshmukh, submitted that restrictions under the Representation of People Act cited by the ED to claim that prisoners have no voting rights are only in certain categories of prisoners who are in confinement.
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It was submitted that the restrictions apply to convicts and not undertrials against whom allegations are yet to be proven.
The lawyer submitted that the leader can be permitted to be taken to the Vidhan Sabha, where the elections will be held, with police escorts for a few hours and returned to prison.
It was submitted that the validity of the vote is to be decided by the returning officer at Vidhan Sabha but they first need the court’s permission to be taken there.
The lawyers also cited that Chhagan Bhujbal, who was behind bars in 2017 in connection with an alleged money laundering case, was also permitted by a special court to go to the legislative assembly and vote during the presidential elections.
Deshmukh is lodged at Arthur Road jail while Malik is currently admitted to a private hospital. Both have been arrested by the ED in separate cases of alleged money laundering.
Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh opposed the submissions stating that the Act states that a person confined in prison cannot vote in any elections, whether he is an undertrial or convict.
Special Judge RN Rokade will pronounce the order on Thursday.
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