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Lalu Prasad Yadav, pictured above, was one of the politicians facing charges who was brought under the scanner after the Supreme Court imposed a ban on convicted politicians. The ban stands overturned.

When the Supreme Court recently imposed a ban on lawmakers convicted of serious crimes from serving in national and state legislatures, even if the conviction is appealed, campaigners for cleaner politics in India could hardly believe their luck.

The government’s move in recent days to undo that ruling has sent those same lawyers and social activists back to the drawing board to figure out how else to rid Parliament of politicians with serious criminal convictions.

On Tuesday, the federal Cabinet issued an executive order allowing lawmakers facing criminal charges to continue to participate in parliamentary proceedings but not to vote or draw a government salary unless they are acquitted.

The government had tried and failed to get the Supreme Court’s ruling overturned during the most recent session of Parliament, so opted instead to by-pass a vote on the matter.

The temporary legislation, known as an ordinance and usually reserved for the emergency passage of laws, needs to be approved by India’s president and later ratified by Parliament within six weeks of the start of the next session in order to become a law. The next parliamentary session is expected to begin in November.

On Wednesday, M.L. Sharma, a New Delhi-based lawyer, filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking to quash the interim law.

“I want to question the government how can a bill pending in Parliament be made into a law by passing an ordinance?” Mr. Sharma told India Real Time Thursday.

Lily Thomas, the 85-year-old human-rights lawyer who brought the original petition of the courts seeking to disqualify convicted politicians from Parliament, slammed the government’s move to shield politicians with criminal records.

“[It] signifies the government has no principle, no direction and no transparency,” Ms. Thomas told India Real Time Thursday.

She said the government had acted hastily to pass an order to shore up coalition support ahead of general elections, which must take place before May next year. “It is quite obvious the government wants to help somebody,” by overturning this ruling, she added.

The government’s executive order brings a reprieve for politicians facing charges and those recently convicted.

Rasheed Masood, former health minister and Congress party member in India’s upper house of Parliament, was found guilty by a Central Bureau of Investigation court in New Delhi this month in a graft case related to seat allocation in medical schools. A local court will decide his sentence on Oct. 1.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, a former federal railways minister and Congress party ally, is currently awaiting the Supreme Court’s verdict, due Sept. 30, in a corruption case related to misappropriation of funds meant to feed livestock during his term as the chief minister of Bihar during the 1990s. He has considerable influence in Bihar, one of India’s most electorally vital states and is expected to contest the next general elections along with the ruling Congress party. Mr. Yadav denies wrongdoing.

Several of India’s politicians have been found guilty of serious crimes such as rape and murder.

A nationwide survey conducted in July by the Association for Democratic Reforms, a New Delhi-based advocacy group for transparency in governance, suggested nearly one-third of the lower house of Parliament, or Lok Sabha, and an almost equal number of state legislators, have criminal cases, including kidnapping, robbery, murder and rape, pending against them. The findings indicated that if a politician faced a criminal conviction or charge they were almost twice as likely to be elected in India as those with clean records.

Subhash Agrawal, a New Delhi-based Right-to-Information activist called the ordinance useless and said having convicted criminals as showpieces in state and national legislatures placed unnecessary burdens on the public purse.

“The cabinet has left no stone unturned to prove that India has a unique type of democracy where it is a system for the politicians, by the politicians and of the politicians,” Mr. Agrawal said.
