No attempt to protect convicted lawmakers: Sibal

Even as the opposition BJP leaders urged the president not to sign an ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers, Law and Justice Minister Kapil Sibal Wednesday said there was no attempt by the central government to shield convicted politicians.

Sibal, who was here to attend a function of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association, claimed the ordinance being brought in by the government was in line with the recent Supreme Court ruling which said that leaders convicted for two years or more would be disqualified as members of the legislature.

The law minister said the ordinance was being misunderstood adding that it was going beyond the scope of the Supreme Court ruling by making the law more stringent for convicted lawmakers.

"There is no attempt by the government to protect any convicted politician. No one has read the ordinance and understood it correctly," Sibal said.

He said he was surprised at the reaction of Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, who had Wednesday demanded that the president should not sign the ordinance on convicted lawmakers saying that the government was trying to protect some convicted leaders.

Sibal said the opposition party and the media were projecting the ordinance in a wrong way.