Report No. 255
C. The 244th Report of the Law Commission
1.8. While the Commission was working towards preparing a Report to submit to the Government, the Hon'ble Supreme Court passed an order on 16th December 2013 in Public Interest Foundation v. Union of India, W.P. (Civil) 536 of 2011, vide D.O. No. 4604/2011/SC/PIL(W) dated 21st December, 2013 requesting the Law Commission to "expedite consideration" for giving a report on the two issues of (a) de-criminalisation of politics and (b) disqualification for filing false affidavits by the end of February 2014.
1.9. Subsequently, a National Consultation on these two issues was organised by the Commission on 1st February 2014, and various political parties3 were represented. Apart from the parties, a cross-section of stakeholders from all parts of societ.- such as a retired Supreme Court judge and former Chairman of the Law Commission; various senior advocates, a former CEC, members of the ECI; a Member of Parliament; and various representatives from the Bar and the Bench, from academia, and from civil society organisation.- were also present.
3. These included the All India NR Congress (Pondicherry), All Jharkhand Students Union Party (Jharkhand), Biju Janata Dal, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Nationalist Congress Party, J & K National Panthers Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, and Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
1.10. This culminated in the submission of the first part of the Commission's work on decriminalisation of politics and disqualification for filing false affidavits in the form of the 244th Report titled "Electoral Disqualifications" on 24th February 2014. The Commission's recommendations were subsequently forwarded to the Hon'ble Supreme Court.
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