New Delhi: In a major step aimed at curbing criminalisation of politics, the Cabinet on October 4 night decided to plug loopholes in the election law to debar convicted people from contesting elections during their jail term and six years from release.

A Bill to amend the Representation of the People Act (R P Act), to be brought forward in the coming winter session of Parliament, will also include fresh offences under Prevention of Corruption Act and Prevention of Terrorism Act for the purpose.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters after the meeting that the R P Act was being amended as there existed a major anomaly under which a person convicted for more than six years of imprisonment could become eligible under sub-Section (1) of Section (8) of the Act to contest polls while serving punishment in jail.

A consensus on this issue was reached at an all-party meeting convened on electoral reforms by the government, she said adding that the anomaly had also been pointed out by the National Commission on Women.

"With the changes in the Law, a person convicted by the judiciary will not be able to fight elections during his prison term and six years thereafter," Swaraj said.

Even if a convicted person is only fined, he would be disqualified from contesting polls for a period of six years under the amended Section 8 (1) of the R P Act, 1951, Swaraj said.

Under Section 8 (1) of the Act, a person convicted of heinous offences like murder and rape would stand disqualified for six years from the date of his conviction.

Under Section 8 (2) of the Act, economic and social offences have been enumerated for the contravention of which a person shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be debarred for a further period of six years since his release if he is sentenced to imprisonment for not less than six months.

In Section 8 (3), the offences which are not covered under sub-sections (1) and (2) have been included so that a person is disqualified from the date of his conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years after his release if he is sentenced to a jail term of not less than two years.

"To bring more serious offences (like murder and rape), contained in Section 8 (1) at par with offences in Section 8 (2) and (3) for the purposes of disqualification, it is proposed that Section 8 (1) be revised so that new offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002, could be included therein," Swaraj said.

Asked as to what was the significance of the six-year period of disqualification after a convicted person completes his jail term, Swaraj said apparently law makers, keeping in view the five-year tenure of Lok Sabha and state Assemblies, wanted to debar such a person convicted of serious offences like murder from contesting for two consecutive elections.

The Bill, she said, would even out the ambiguities in the present law and remove the loopholes.

PTI