Jayalalithaa first CM to face disqualification

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Saturday became the third leading politician and the first sitting chief minister to face disqualification as a legislator after being convicted in a disproportionate assets case.

A trial court in Bangalore Saturday convicted her in a disproportionate assets case filed by the former DMK government in 1996.

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad was disqualified from his seat in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rasheed Masood from the Rajya Sabha in the wake of the July 2013 judgment of the Supreme court that denied the three-month breathing period to MPs and MLAs for moving a higher court against their conviction.

The elected representatives, both in the parliament and the state assemblies, lost the shield of three months to appeal against their conviction after sub-section 4 of section 8 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 was declared ultra vires by the apex court.

Masood was convicted last year of diverting nine seats of the undergraduate medical course reserved for Tripura while Lalu Prasad was convicted in the fodder scam case last year.