Supreme Court Rejects Former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda's Petition, Cannot Contest Assembly Elections

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, convicted in the coal scam case, has received a setback from the Supreme Court. The petition filed by Madhu Koda was rejected by the Supreme Court on Friday. Now Madhu Koda cannot contest the Jharkhand Assembly elections. Madhu Koda had filed a petition to stay the conviction, which has been rejected.

The 3-member bench led by Justice Sanjeev Khanna, while hearing the petition of former CM Madhu Koda, convicted in the coal scam case, said, 'We agree with the decision of the Supreme Court in Afzal Ansari vs State of Uttar Pradesh. Many factors have to be taken into consideration to stay the conviction, which is not a routine matter. In the Afzal Ansari case, the appellant was a sitting member of the legislature. But here such is not the factual situation. In such a situation, the court rejects the petition.' When Madhu Koda was sentenced, he was not a member of the Legislative Assembly. In such a situation, this situation is different, due to which the Supreme Court rejected the petition.

Let us tell you that earlier, the Delhi High Court had rejected the petition related to a stay of conviction on 18 October. The CBI had opposed Koda's petition and said that it was not worth consideration. On 13 December 2017, the lower court sentenced Madhu Koda, former coal secretary HC Gupta, former state chief secretary AK Basu and Koda's close aide Vijay Joshi to 3 years in jail for being involved in the corruption case and wrongly allocating the state's Rajhara North coal block to Kolkata-based company Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Limited.

Let us tell you that under the Representation of the People Act, a person convicted of any crime and sentenced to at least two years of imprisonment is immediately disqualified as a member of MP, MLA, or MLC and apart from this, even after coming out of jail, he cannot contest elections for 6 years.