The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday admitted Bholath MLA Bibi Jagir Kaur's petition challenging Patiala central bureau of investigation court's judgment in her daughter Harpreet Kaur's abduction and forcible abortion case wherein she was sentenced to five years imprisonment. As a result she would not be disqualified now from MLA's post.
The petition came up for hearing before the court of justice Rakesh Kumar Garg and would now come up for hearing with regular cases as per its turn.
Former cabinet minister and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee president Jagir Kaur was sentenced to five years by a special CBI court Patiala on March 30 and since then she is behind bars in Kapurthala jail.
Jagir Kaur has not requested the high court for bail in the case like her co-convict and personal security officer Nishan Singh, who had approached the high court on April 30.
After passing of the conviction judgement, if she had failed to challenge the conviction orders in the high court within three months she would have been disqualified as MLA.
As per section 8 of the Representation of The People Act, 1951, a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his/her release.
{{/usCountry}}As per section 8 of the Representation of The People Act, 1951, a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of such conviction and shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years since his/her release.
{{/usCountry}}Jagir Kaur in her petition submitted that the trial court had erred in judgment and in the case no independent witnesses were examined and those who were examined had neither supported the prosecution's version nor corroborated the same.
A total of seven persons were tried, out of which two were acquitted, one died during the trial and CBI special judge convicted and handed separate sentences to Bibi Jagir Kaur, Nishan Singh, Dalwinder Kaur Dhesi and Paramjit Singh Raipur. However, the CBI judge acquitted the four from charges of murder.