New Delhi. Former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda will not be able to contest the assembly elections. The Supreme Court rejected Koda’s plea seeking postponement of his sentence in the coal scam case. Madhu Koda was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2017 by a Jharkhand trial court in the case of wrongly allotting a coal block. Former Chief Minister Madhu Koda had also challenged the decision of the lower court in the Jharkhand High Court, but he did not get relief from there also. After this, Koda had approached the apex court expressing his desire to contest the elections.
Supreme Court dismisses plea by former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda to suspend conviction in coal scam to contest upcoming State Assembly polls.
Code given liberty to move early hearing applications in pending appeal.
Sr Adv RS Cheema appeared for the CBI.#SupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/rrTh5r4Qds
— Bar and Bench (@barandbench) October 25, 2024
In the bench of Supreme Court Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice R Mahadevan, Koda had filed a petition to stay the conviction, which was rejected. The trial court had also sentenced former Jharkhand coal secretary HC Gupta, former state chief secretary AK Basu and Koda’s close aide Vijay Joshi in this case. Let us tell you that under the Representation of the People Act, if a politician is sentenced to two years or more for his involvement in any crime, then he cannot contest elections. Not only this, if that person is an MLA, MP, MLC, then he is declared ineligible for this also and his membership of the House is terminated.
Madhu Koda was the only independent MLA in the country who became the Chief Minister. At present Madhu Koda’s wife Geeta Koda is contesting elections from Jagannathpur on BJP ticket. Geeta Koda was earlier in Congress and she was the only Congress MP from Jharkhand. However, in February 2024, he left Congress and joined BJP. BJP has fielded Madhu Koda from the same Jagannathpur assembly seat from where her husband Madhu Koda became MLA for the first time.
