On Friday, the Supreme Court will listen to a petition of a former chief minister of Jharkhand Madhu Koda, who asked to halt the decision made in 2017 in accordance with the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Koda’s plea seeks permission for him to participate in the next assembly polls in Jharkhand. A bench of three judges comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar, and R Mahadevan has fixed the hearing for Friday, while the court has asked the CBI to produce decisions where the apex court has such matters.
The crime was committed by unlawfully allotting a coal block to Vini Iron and Steel Limited – a Kolkata-based firm – for which Koda was convicted in a special CBI court in December 2017. The case originates from Koda’s time as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, which was from 2006 to 2008. In a similar offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the court awarded him three years of rigorous imprisonment. According to Section 8(1) of the Representation of Peoples Act, a person cannot vote or be voted in the Parliament or state assembly for six years after he is released from this Act.
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Koda’s legal council has stated that the former Chief Minister has appealed the conviction and, hence, should be allowed to vote and be elected until the Supreme court finally disposes the case. His counsel has also compared the recent stay by the Supreme Court on the conviction of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case for which he cannot contest the elections. In this regard, Koda’s lawyers stated that the restriction of his right to contest violates not only his right to participate in public life but also the voters’ right.
The Delhi High Court had earlier rejected Koda’s bail plea on October 18th, declining to stay his conviction to stop him from filing a nomination for assembly elections in Jharkhand.
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