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SC to hear Madhu Koda’s plea for stay on conviction in corruption case tomorrow
Madhu Koda was convicted in Dec 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act in a case relating to the allotment of a coal block to a Kolkata-based firm
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will take up on Friday a petition by former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda seeking a stay on his conviction under the Prevention of Corruption Act to enable him to contest the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan posted the matter for Friday and asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel to consider placing judgments where the top court has dealt with this issue.
“There is an earlier judgment dealing with suspension of conviction saying that the threshold for it is not the same as the threshold for grant of bail,” the bench told senior lawyer RS Cheema, who appeared for the CBI.
Koda was convicted in December 2017 under the anti-corruption law in a case relating to the allotment of a coal block to a Kolkata-based Vini Iron and Steel Limited during his tenure as chief minister of the state from 2006 to 2008. A special CBI court in Delhi sentenced Koda to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years.
According to Section 8(1) of the Representation of Peoples Act, a conviction under the Prevention of Corruption Act disqualifies a person from contesting the elections to the Parliament or assembly for six years after undergoing sentence.
The Delhi high court on October 18refused Koda’s request to stay the operation of the conviction to allow him to file his nomination papers in the Jharkhand assembly elections to be held in two phases on November 13 and 20.
Koda’s legal team argued that his appeal against the conviction was still pending and cited, among others, the Supreme Court’s decision granting the stay of conviction to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi following his conviction in a defamation case. They argued that not allowing Koda to contest not only affected his right to continue in public life but also the electorate’s right to elect him.
The high court, however, stressed that Koda wasn’t an elected representative who incurred disqualification during the tenure of holding public office and there had been no change in circumstances since he last approached the high court for a similar relief in 2019.
“The consequence of a sitting member may have irreversible consequences on a constituency for being left unrepresented and in such rare circumstances, the court would be right in exercising the power to stay the conviction in view of larger social ramifications for the people of the constituency.”
To be sure, Koda has also been under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate since 2009 over allegations that the proceeds of crime relating to the coal scam were to the tune of ₹3500 crore. After charges were framed in this case by the trial court, the Jharkhand high court in November last year stayed the trial.
The ED moved the Supreme Court earlier this month to request that the high court’s stay be vacated. The agency was permitted to approach the high court and the top court requested the HC to hear the matter on November 25.
