No Lok Sabha 2019 For Hardik Patel? SC Denies Urgent Hearing Of Plea Seeking Suspension Of Conviction

A Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices Arun Mishra, M M Shantanagoudar, Navin Sinha today (2 March) declined to give an urgent hearing to Patidar agitator turned Congress leader Hardik Patel’s petition asking for his conviction in a case of rioting to be suspended, reports TOI.

Patel had approached the apex court after the Gujarat High Court dismissed his plea asking for the same relief. He requires that his conviction be suspended because under the Representation of the People Act and a related Supreme Court judgment, a person convicted for an offence, facing two years or more of imprisonment, cannot contest elections unless the conviction itself is set aside.

The bench noted that there was no urgency in the case since only in August 2018 the High Court had passed its judgment on it.

The 25-year-old Patidar leader had been looking to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket from the constituency of Jamnagar, Gujarat. 4 April is the deadline for filing nominations.

The trial court at Visnagar in Mehsana district had ordered a sentence of two years of imprisonment for Patel after finding him guilty of involvement in rioting and arson in Visnagar town in 2015 when the Patidar reservation agitation was taking place.

The Gujarat High Court in August 2018 had suspended Patel’s sentence but refused to stay the conviction.