The Most Accountable Class in Country? - You can contest from jail - Rajya Sabha passes Bill
A Division Bench of the Supreme Court by its order dated the 10th July, 2013, in the case of Chief Election Commissioner vs. Jan Chaukidar and others has upheld an order of the High Court of Patna declaring that a person who has no right to vote is not an elector and is, therefore, not qualified to contest the election to either House of Parliament or the Legislative Assembly of a State.
Government is of the view that there is a need for suitably addressing the situation arising out of the said order of the Supreme Court. Therefore, it is proposed to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and so the Government brought in the Representation of the People (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013.
In a rare show of collective identical thinking, the Rajya Sabha passed the Bill on 27th August unanimously.
The Law Minister Kapil Sibal said,
The fact of the matter is that the political class is, perhaps, the most accountable class in this country. The politician is accountable to Parliament; the politician is accountable to the Election Commission; the politician is accountable to the court; the politician is accountable to the people because every five years he has to go back to the people. I want to know which institutional authority in this country is accountable to so many institutions. None. The fact of the matter is that we are the most accountable set of people in the country.
It is we who have passed the law, the Anti Defection Law, to make ourselves accountable, not somebody else. It is we who have said, ‘okay, we will disclose our assets to the Election Commission, through law'. So, we have, in fact, furthered the process of our own accountability because we know that there is something wrong that is happening and we need to address that issue. How many institutions in this country have done that? Which other institution in this country has taken steps to make themselves more accountable? I think that is really the issue that this country has to move forward, we must accept that we must be transparent in our decision-making and accountable to the people of this country. And that is true not just of the political class but all institutions in this country.