The bench said that this is an "interesting but important question of far-reaching consequence" New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday in a landmark ruling held that a vote cast by a lawmaker prior to his conviction in a criminal case on the same day cannot be termed as invalid saying holding him disqualified even before he was convicted "would grossly violate his substantive right to be treated as innocent until proven guilty". The top court, which termed it as an "interesting but important question of far-reaching consequence," said that to say that this presumption of innocence would evaporate from 00.01 AM, though the conviction was handed over at 14.30 PM would strike at the very root of the most fundamental principle of Criminal Jurisprudence.