The Supreme Court on Monday sought attorney-general R. Venkataramani’s assistance in dealing with a plea to ban convicted politicians from legislative posts for life instead of the present six years, and also disqualify them from occupying party posts.

The apex court also sought the views of the state governments and other stakeholders within three weeks so that it could examine the vires (scope or strength) of Sections 8 and 9 of the Representation of the People Act.

Section 8 relates to the disqualification of convicted MPs and MLAs from holding any legislative post for six years from the date of their release from jail, provided the sentence is two years or longer. (Convicted and similarly sentenced non-politicians too are banned from contesting elections for six years.)

Section 9, which relates to former bureaucrats, says: “A person who having held an office under the Government of India or under the Government of any State has been dismissed for corruption or for disloyalty to the State shall be disqualified for a period of five years (from contesting elections) from the date of such dismissal.”

The bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Manmohan passed the directions on Monday whiledealing with a public interest petition filed in 2017 by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the petitioner, said some 45 to 48 members of Parliament and various (state) legislatures had criminal casesregistered against them.

He said a limited ban like the existing six-year disqualification left even those convicted of heinous crimes, such as murder and rape, free to get elected at the end of theban period.

“We may not strike down a provision. We will hear the petitioner, then the Union of India, the states if they would like to address (the matter) and other stakeholders. Thereafter we will decide,” the bench orally observed, while asking the attorney-generalto assist it.

However, the bench made it clear that it would go ahead with the hearing even if the states and other stakeholders failed to file their responses.

Advocate Sidhant Kumar, appearing for the Election Commission, sought three weeks to file the poll panel’s reply, which thebench granted.

“(The) criminalisation of politics is a very major issue. The Election Commission must have applied its mind and come out with a better solution than what is canvassed before us,” the bench told Kumar.

Upadhyaya’s 2017 petition said that many convicted politicians, such as Sasikala Natrajan and Lalu Prasad, continued to hold key positions in their parties, the AIADMK and RJD.

In 2018, the Centre had in its response to the petition, issued through the Union law ministry, said the law disqualifying convicted politicians from legislative posts (for six years plus the sentence period) had no bearing on their occupying party posts.

“It is submitted that a post holder of a political party is not a ‘representative’ (of the government),” it said.