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Rasheed Masood is first MP to lose seat after conviction
Ashok Tuteja/TNS

Rasheed Masood

New Delhi, October 21
Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood of the Congress was today disqualified from the Upper House after he was found guilty of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery in allocating seats in a medical college.

Masood became the first MP to be disqualified after the Supreme Court in July said lawmakers will lose their seats immediately if they are convicted of offences that carry a prison term of more than two years. They could earlier avoid disqualification if their appeals were being heard in a higher court.

The Rajya Sabha secretariat has notified Masood’s disqualification through a bulletin issued by Secretary General Shumsher Sheriff.

“Rasheed Masood, stands disqualified for being a Member of the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) from the date of his conviction --- September 19, 2013 --- for the period of his sentence and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release in terms of the existing Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) read with sub-clause (e) of clause (1) of article 102 of the Constitution," the bulletin said. The Tis Hazari district court in Delhi had sentenced the 66-year-old Masood to four years in jail after finding him guilty of cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery in allotting medical college seats to undeserving students, including two nephews.

Masood is alleged to have misused his office as the Health Minister in the VP Singh-led led coalition government in the 1990s, when he was with the Samajwadi Party. He joined the Congress party in 2011.

The UPA government’s attempts to bring an ordinance to reverse the 10 July apex court order was later shelved following severe criticism, including from the main Opposition BJP and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who called the ruling coalition’s move “nonsense” after it was cleared by the Union Cabinet.

The Lok Sabha is yet to disqualify former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav who has been held guilty in the fodder scam.