LUCKNOW: Actor Sanjay Dutt, who is all set to make his political debut from Lucknow as the Samajwadi Party candidate for Lok Sabha elections, has moved Supreme Court seeking a stay on his conviction under the Arms Act.
The SC stay is required to clear his path for contesting the elections.
Dutt’s petition will be mentioned on Friday in the apex court for early hearing. The petition was filed on Thursday morning.
Ace defence counsel V R Manohar, who represented the actor in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, said few weeks ago: "His nomination will be rejected and he cannot contest unless the Supreme Court stays the conviction and suspends the sentence."
Dutt is out on merely on bail following his conviction in the blasts case. So his conviction stands.
There is another hitch. The apex court may be less likely to suspend Dutt's conviction and sentence pending his appeal because — despite his name being cleared of terror charges — it is the blasts case that he is connected with, say legal experts.
"Dutt's acquittal under the more stringent Tada may not be his ticket to contest if that and his release on bail are what he is banking on," Mumbai-based advocate Hitesh Jain, now representing an accused in the Malegaon blasts case, said.
While granting bail to the actor on November 27, 2007, the court had directed him to surrender his passport and asked him not to leave the country without its permission.
The Bollywood star, who was sentenced in July 2007, had spent 18 months in jail during the pendency of the trial.
The actor had in the first week of February got Supreme Court's permission to extend his foreign visit by two weeks to fulfil his commitments as United Nations' Goodwill Ambassador on malnutrition.
One near-parallel that comes to mind is cricketer-turned-politician Navjyot Singh Siddhu's case. He had to give up his Lok Sabha membership after the Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside his acquittal on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
He then appealed in the Supreme Court against his conviction and made a specific plea for staying his conviction to enable him to contest in the bypolls. The SC, just a day before the deadline for filing his nomination in 2006, stayed Siddhu's conviction in the road rage case and ensured that he could contest the Amritsar Lok Sabha bypoll.
What the law says
Under the Representation of the People Act, anyone sentenced to more than two years' imprisonment is barred from contesting elections till a court of law stays the conviction and sentence.
Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Sanjay-Dutt-seeks-SC-nod-to-fight-polls/articleshow/4226894.cms
The SC stay is required to clear his path for contesting the elections.
Dutt’s petition will be mentioned on Friday in the apex court for early hearing. The petition was filed on Thursday morning.
Ace defence counsel V R Manohar, who represented the actor in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case, said few weeks ago: "His nomination will be rejected and he cannot contest unless the Supreme Court stays the conviction and suspends the sentence."
Dutt is out on merely on bail following his conviction in the blasts case. So his conviction stands.
There is another hitch. The apex court may be less likely to suspend Dutt's conviction and sentence pending his appeal because — despite his name being cleared of terror charges — it is the blasts case that he is connected with, say legal experts.
"Dutt's acquittal under the more stringent Tada may not be his ticket to contest if that and his release on bail are what he is banking on," Mumbai-based advocate Hitesh Jain, now representing an accused in the Malegaon blasts case, said.
While granting bail to the actor on November 27, 2007, the court had directed him to surrender his passport and asked him not to leave the country without its permission.
The Bollywood star, who was sentenced in July 2007, had spent 18 months in jail during the pendency of the trial.
The actor had in the first week of February got Supreme Court's permission to extend his foreign visit by two weeks to fulfil his commitments as United Nations' Goodwill Ambassador on malnutrition.
One near-parallel that comes to mind is cricketer-turned-politician Navjyot Singh Siddhu's case. He had to give up his Lok Sabha membership after the Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside his acquittal on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
He then appealed in the Supreme Court against his conviction and made a specific plea for staying his conviction to enable him to contest in the bypolls. The SC, just a day before the deadline for filing his nomination in 2006, stayed Siddhu's conviction in the road rage case and ensured that he could contest the Amritsar Lok Sabha bypoll.
What the law says
Under the Representation of the People Act, anyone sentenced to more than two years' imprisonment is barred from contesting elections till a court of law stays the conviction and sentence.
Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Sanjay-Dutt-seeks-SC-nod-to-fight-polls/articleshow/4226894.cms
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