Imprisoned RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin was on Wednesday allowed to cast his vote in the Presidential election scheduled on Thursday by the Supreme Court which refused to give a direction to bar MPs and MLAs lodged in jails from exercising their franchise.

“They (jailed MPs and MLAs) are voting as people’s representatives. We cannot deny them to vote,” a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said.

“They are part of the electoral college,” the Bench, also comprising Justices R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari, said declining to entertain a petition filed by advocate Z K Faizan seeking to bar jailed MPs and MLAs from casting their ballot in the Presidential and V-Ptial polls.

The court said if they were barred from voting, the entire constituency electing them would go unrepresented.
However, the Bench said at this stage it was not dismissing the petition.

Immediately after this proceeding, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi mentioned the petition of Shahabuddin stating that he was unable get permission from the Patna HC to cast his vote in the Presidential election  as its various benches declined to hear him.

After some query, the Bench allowed the Siwan MP, who has been convicted in three criminal cases, to cast his vote on Thursday at the Bihar Assembly in Patna.

Shahabuddin will be taken in custody parole with sufficient police escort from Siwan district jail to the state assembly to cast his vote and the Election Commission will make appropriate arrangements in this regard, the court said.