Coal scam: Supreme Court to hear ex-Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda's plea for stay on conviction on Oct 25

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on Friday a plea moved by former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, seeking a stay on his conviction in a coal scam case, to enable him to contest the upcoming state Assembly polls.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan on Thursday said the judges were not able to go through the case files as those were sent to them late and therefore, the matter will be taken up on Friday.

The bench asked senior advocate R S Cheema, who appeared in the matter on behalf of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to go through an earlier judgment of the court that says for the suspension of a sentence, the threshold is different from what is there in bail cases.

Cheema agreed to look into the earlier judgment of the apex court.

On October 18, the Delhi High Court rejected a plea moved by Koda seeking a stay on his conviction in the case.

Koda's application was opposed by the investigating agency, CBI, on the ground of maintainability.

Polling for the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly is scheduled to be held in two phases on November 13 and November 20, and the counting of votes will be taken up on November 23.

On December 13, 2017, Koda, former coal secretary H C Gupta, former Jharkhand chief secretary A K Basu and Koda's close aide Vijay Joshi were sentenced to three years in prison by a trial court for indulging in corrupt practices and hatching a criminal conspiracy in the allocation of the Rajhara North Coal Block in the state to Kolkata-based company Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Limited (VISUL).

It had imposed fines of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 1 lakh on VISUL, Koda and Gupta respectively in the UPA-era coal scam. A fine of Rs 1 lakh was also slapped on Basu.

The convicts were granted bail during the pendency of their appeals.

Koda had sought the suspension of the December 2017 conviction order to contest the Jharkhand Assembly polls.

Under the Representation of the People Act, a person convicted of a crime and sentenced to at least two years in jail is immediately disqualified as an MP, MLA or a member of a state legislative council (MLC). The person remains disqualified for six years after being released from prison.

The CBI had submitted that an identical application filed by Koda was dismissed by the high court in May 2020 and his fresh plea seeking the same relief is not maintainable.

In May 2020, the high court refused to stay Koda's conviction, saying it would not be apt to allow him to contest an election to any public office until he was finally acquitted.

The wider opinion was that those charged with crimes ought to be disqualified from contesting elections to public offices. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to stay Koda's conviction and allow him to overcome the disqualification he had incurred, the high court had said.