NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha membership of congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been restored. The Lok Sabha Secretariat issued an order restoring his parliamentary membership after the Supreme Court stayed the sentence in the defamation case.

Rahul Gandhi is returning to the Lok Sabha after 137 days. The Supreme Court had last Friday stayed the sentence in the defamation case. With this, Rahul Gandhi's disqualification was removed, but the Lok Sabha Secretariat did not issue a notification restoring his Lok Sabha membership.

The application including copies of the Supreme Court judgment, was forwarded to the chief secretary of the Congress Lok Sabha leader. After this, the order was issued restoring his parliamentary membership.

Rahul was disqualified on March 24, with effect from March 23 after a Gujarat court convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail.

A punishment of two years and above automatically disqualifies a lawmaker and he had to vacate his official residence of 19 years.