MUMBAI: A special court in Mumbai on Thursday refused to allow Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik to be released for a day from prison to enable them to vote in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.
Both Deshmukh, a former state home minister, and Malik, present state minister, were arrested in money-laundering cases.
While Deshmukh was arrested in November 2021, Malik has been in jail since February 2022.
Deshmukh is an MLA from Katol (Nagpur) constituency while Malik represents Anushakti Nagar in Mumbai.
On Wednesday, opposing their pleas, additional solicitor general Anil Singh, representing the Enforcement Directorate, had cited a section of the Representation of People's (RP) Act to underline his argument that prisoners do not have voting rights.
"The right to vote is a statutory right created under Section 62 of the RP Act and the law settled that the right to vote being a statutory right is subject to the restrictions prescribed in the RP Act," Singh had said.
Malik's lawyer Amit Desai, however, drew parallels with MLA Chhagan Bhujbal who was allowed to vote in the presidential elections in 2017 despite being in custody in a money-laundering case.
Desai told the special PMLA court that Malik was seeking to "enforce" his duty as a legislator not his rights.
"The validity of the vote is for the returning officer to decide," he submitted before special judge RN Rokade.
"Malik is only seeking the ability to go to the floor of the house and cast his ballot. If I am not allowed, I am prejudiced, my party is prejudiced," Desai said.
He added that even a person who has criminal antecedents can stand for elections.
Deshmukh's lawyer Abad Ponda argued that there's a difference between a convict and an undertrial who is permitted to come out for remand and other court proceedings.
He also submitted that Deshmukh was neither in police custody nor were charges framed in the case.
Singh, however, said that a person confined in prison cannot vote in any elections.
"Whether he's under sentence or undertrial, it doesn't make a difference. The right to vote is a statutory right. If a right is given by the statute, it can be taken away by statute. We have to interpret the section as it is, in plain and simple language. If it says you cannot vote, you cannot vote," Singh submitted.
