Par panel okay with govt's move to withdraw bill on convicted

A Parliamentary Committee today concurred with the government's move to withdraw a bill from Parliament which seeks to give protection to convicted lawmakers.
Referring to a letter by Law Minister Kapil Sibal to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat giving notice to withdraw the Representation of People (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2013 during the ongoing Winter session, the Standing Committee on Law and Personnel said the panel finds it "appropriate" to agree with the government's move.
On October 2, the Union Cabinet had decided to withdraw the ordinance as well as the bill that sought to give protection to convicted lawmakers in the wake of public outburst against it by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

The Cabinet had approved on September 24 the ordinance which sought to negate the Supreme Court order of July 10 which ruled that any lawmaker would stand immediately disqualified if convicted by a court.
The overturning of the decision came in the wake of Rahul's trashing of the ordinance as "nonsense". He had said it should be "torn" and "thrown out".
As the bill could not be passed in the Monsoon session, the Cabinet had approved an ordinance to protect lawmakers.

Since the SC verdict is the law of the land now, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma, both convicted in the Bihar fodder scam, were formally disqualified from the Lok Sabha.

Congress leader Rashid Masood became the first MP to formally lose his Rajya Sabha seat as a result of the July 10 SC order.
Masood, as health minister in the VP Singh government between 1990 and 1991, had nominated undeserving candidates to MBBS seats in colleges across the country that had been allotted to Tripura from a central pool.