Hardik moves SC, seeks stay on conviction in riots case

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 1

Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who intends to contest the Lok Sabha polls as a Congress candidate from Jamnagar, today moved the Supreme Court, challenging a Gujarat High Court order refusing to stay his conviction in a 2015 rioting case.

Patel’s petition is likely to be mentioned for urgent hearing tomorrow as the last date for filing nominations in Gujarat is April 4. Polling for 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state is to be held on April 23.

A sessions court at Visnagar in Mehsana had sentenced Patel to two-year imprisonment on July 25, 2018, for rioting and arson in Visnagar town in 2015 during the Patidar agitation for reservation in education and jobs. The Gujarat HC had in August last year suspended the sentence but not the conviction.

In January 2007, the SC had stayed the conviction of Navjot Singh Sidhu in a road rage death case, paving way for his contest for the Amritsar LS byelection necessitated by his resignation. In November last year, the SC had stayed the conviction of Rajasthan Congress leader Shivkant Nandwana who intended to contest assembly polls.

Patel’s counsel had submitted that if his conviction was not stayed, it would cause “irreparable damage” as he would not be able to contest.

The Gujarat Government had told the HC that there were 17 FIRs, including two sedition complaints, against Patel who habitually made inflammatory speeches.

IF RULING NOT IN FAVOUR, HE WON’T CONTEST

• Hardik Patel, 25, had joined Congress on March 12 and had already started preparations to contest from Jamnagar. But the March 29 HC order refusing to stay his conviction virtually ruled out his debut in electoral politics
• Under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and related SC rulings, a convict facing a jail term of two years or more cannot contest elections. But if the conviction is stayed or suspended, the ineligibility gets removed
• The last date to file nominations in Gujarat is April 4 and polling for 26 LS seats in the state will be held on April 23