Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, convicted Thursday of defamation, was removed from his post on Friday. Under the Indian constitution, any lawmaker convicted of a crime is disqualified from serving in parliament. 
 

Rahul Gandhi, India’s opposition Congress party leader, now “stands disqualified from the membership” of the Indian parliament, a statement from India’s lower house read on Friday, March 24. On Thursday, March 23, Rahul Gandhi was convicted on defamation charges and sentenced to two years in prison by a lower court in India.

Gandhi made a statement in a 2019 speech that questioned why a group of thieves all had the same surname of Modi. The charges against him were brought by another lawmaker, Purnesh Modi, a member of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party, who said his statements defamed everyone with the surname.

Under Indian law, Gandhi’s conviction disqualifies him from serving in parliament.Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, mandates disqualification of any lawmaker who is “convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years”.

The Congress party, once dominant in India, now holds less than 10 percent of the elected seats in parliament’s lower house, Lok Sabha.

Gandhi represented the Wayanad constituency in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Gandhi’s conviction makes him ineligible to contest elections for six years after the end of his jail term. Gandhi can still save his parliament seat if he secures an order from a higher court suspending the conviction, lawyers say. 

A reduced sentence or a total overturn of the conviction prior to an election for his vacated seat could also reinstate the lawmaker.

Gandhi’s jail sentence was suspended for 30 days which will allow him time to appeal to a higher court.

Rahul Gandhi is the the grandson of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and son of former Indian Prime Minister Rajv Gandhi.

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