The Patidar leader had moved the apex court on April 1 against a March 29 verdict of the Gujarat High Court, which refused to stay his conviction citing his criminal antecedents and 17 FIRs pending across Gujarat.
Patidar leader Hardik Patel's hope of fighting the 2019 general elections from Jamnagar constituency in Gujarat on a Congress ticket has finally come to an end. Notably, the Supreme Court, even after four days of filing his petition seeking a stay on his conviction in a rioting case, did not take up the case for hearing. With Thursday being the last day for filing nominations, it is now clear that Hardik will not be able to contest the election.
The Patidar leader had moved the apex court on April 1 against a March 29 verdict of the Gujarat High Court, which refused to stay his conviction citing his criminal antecedents and 17 FIRs pending across Gujarat. A Visnagar court in Mehsana district had convicted Hardik for rioting in July 2018 and sentenced him to two years in jail, against which he appealed before the high court, which stayed the sentence in August 2018, but refused to stay the conviction.
Notably, counsel for Hardik had on April 2 mentioned before the apex court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra to take up the case for an urgent hearing. However, the court refused the same remarking that there was no urgency in hearing the matter as the high court had refused to stay the conviction in August last year.
While his appeal against conviction and sentence is still pending before the Gujarat High Court, the Patidar leader had again moved before the high court's single-judge bench of Justice AG Uraizee in March for a stay on his conviction. However, Justice Uraizee refused to entertain his plea citing that at this stage, the court does not want to enter into whether the trial court committed an error in convicting Hardik, or not.
Justice Uraizee said it was for the appellate court, where Hardik's appeal against conviction is pending, to decide whether the trial court committed an error in convicting him based on the witnesses and evidence produced by the state government.
Meanwhile, Congress has fielded Mulu Kandoriya from the Jamnagar seat from where Hardik was supposed to fight.
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