The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday sought a response from the Punjab government and state vidhan sabha on a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding a declaration of Khadoor Sahib assembly seat as vacant following the conviction of AAP MLA, Manjinder Singh Lalpura. The PIL was from one Jaswant Singh of Tarn Taran, which was taken up on Monday and has been kept for further hearing at the end of March for a response from the Punjab Vidhan Sabha and the state government.
Legislator from Khadoor Sahib, Lalpura, was awarded four years in prison by a Tarn Taran court on September 10, 2025, under the SC/ST Act with three years under Section 354, one year under Section 506, and one year under Section 323 of the Indian Penal Code.
The trial court had convicted six others also. According to the prosecution, the complainant, who belongs to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, was assaulted by the accused, including Lalpura and some cops from the Tarn Taran police, on March 3, 2013. The incident took place when the complainant, along with her family members, came to a marriage palace on Goindwal Road for a function. At that time, Lalpura was a taxi driver. His appeal against the conviction is pending in high court, and he has not received any relief in the case.
The plea sought directions to vidhan sabha speaker to decide the representation by the petitioner, in which he had sought the disqualification of Lalpura. Further direction has been sought from the court to immediately issue a formal notification declaring the Khadoor Sahib assembly seat as vacant owing to the ‘automatic’ disqualification of Lalpura.
According to the petition, under the existing election law in Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years gets disqualified from the date of such conviction and continues to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his/her release.
It was in a landmark verdict in ‘Lily Thomas v Union of India (2013)’, the Supreme Court declared Section 8(4) of the Act, which protected a convicted lawmaker from immediate disqualification if he/she filed an appeal within three months from the date of the verdict, unconstitutional. As per lawyers, the vidhan sabha can delay the issuance of a formal order, but the disqualification of a legislator is automatic from the day he or she is convicted.
