NEW DELHI, Feb. 11 -- The Supreme Court said on Monday that it found no logic in a convicted legislator being barred from contesting elections for just six years and sought the Centre's response on a petition seeking a life ban instead, observing that there exists an "apparent conflict of interest" in allowing a law-breaker to be a lawmaker.

Addressing the issue in a public interest litigation filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, pending since 2016, a bench headed by justice Dipankar Datta said, "If conviction is upheld, a government servant gets barred for life. Then, how do people come back to Parliament? There is an apparent conflict of interest too. How do persons breaking the law make laws?"

Upadhyay, who was represented by se...