In view of the pendency of election petitions and disqualification cases of MLAs that devalued the Indian democratic system, veteran politician O Joy appealed to the authority concerned to form an election tribunal to deliver justice in connection with election-related cases in time.
He urged the legislative bodies of the state and Centre to frame a mandatory provision, to punish elected representatives who had conducted corrupt practices during the election period, under the Representation of the People's Act 1951.
Addressing the media during a press conference held at his residence on Sunday, Joy said that there are many election petitions filed against some of the elected MLAs for indulging in corrupt practices during election time. Maximum of the cases are yet to deliver their justice but the term of election is about to end. This has resulted in demeaning the value of the parliamentary democratic system of India.
“According to the democratic system of India, the term of an elected representative is five years. An election petition was filed against many present MLAs for doing malpractices during the election period. The term of the present government is about to complete but cases are still pending. What is the point of filing a petition if such corrupted representatives are going to rule their constituencies for a whole term for inability to deliver justice,” he questioned.
Joy also said that even in the disqualification cases of MLA under the 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, the authority concerned took much time to complete the cases. At present, representatives of many constituencies are lying vacant in connection with disqualification cases. Some of them are Henglep, Kumbi, Lamlai, Naoriya Pakhanglakpa, Andro and so on, he added.
Absence of representatives from any constituencies during the budget session is almost similar to excluding voices of some group of society, Joy said.
He said that Representation of the People Act 1951 had clearly mentioned punishing corrupted representatives as directive provision. Considering the present situation of the state with ever-increasing election petitions and its pendency and disqualification cases of MLAs, it is high time to mandatorily convert the provision. On top of this, the state should consider the formation of an election tribunal so that the pending cases may be settled swiftly, he added.
Stating about the delimitation process, he said that the announcement made by the central government to carry out the delimitation task of Manipur along with four other northeast states after the 2031 census is highly appreciated. The state government should also welcome the decision.
The state needs to clearly cut the population demarcation otherwise it will create problems amongst various communities or constituencies. As such it would not be wise to carry out a delimitation process based on the 2011 census report, Joy added.
