Ashwini Upadhyaya is seeking a life ban on politicians convicted in criminal cases. The term of disqualification is decided by the House \”considering the principles of proportionality and reasonability\” The Supreme Court had, in April 2013, held that MPs and MLAs convicted with a minimum two-year sentence will be immediately disqualified from the House. The UPA government at the Centre had then pushed through an ordinance to negate this, which was vociferously opposed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The affidavit said the current laws were \”constitutionally sound\” and \”did not suffer from the vice of excess delegation\” and that judicial review would be suitably altered in such regard. It said there was nothing unconstitutional about limiting the effect of penalties by time and that doing so was a settled principle of law. The Centre argued that under judicial review, the Supreme Court could only strike down the laws as unconstitutional but not grant the relief of lifetime ban sought by the petitioner. The petition was filed by advocate Ashwini UPadhyay, who is also a member of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
