Today, On 24th October, The Supreme Court scheduled to hear former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda’s plea on Friday, seeking a stay on his conviction in the coal scam case. Koda was convicted in 2017 for corruption and criminal conspiracy related to irregularities in coal block allocations. He has filed a petition to stay the conviction, which, if granted, could impact his ability to contest elections. The coal scam, a major corruption case, involved the allocation of coal blocks to private firms without a transparent bidding process.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is set to hear a petition on Friday from former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, who is seeking a stay on his conviction related to a coal scam, allowing him to participate in the upcoming state Assembly elections.
A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar, and R. Mahadevan noted on Thursday that they had not been able to review the case files because they arrived late, prompting the matter to be postponed until Friday.
The bench requested senior advocate R. S. Cheema, representing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to examine a previous court ruling that establishes a different standard for suspending a sentence compared to bail cases. Cheema agreed to review the earlier judgment.
On October 18, the Delhi High Court denied Koda’s request for a stay on his conviction. The CBI opposed Koda’s application, citing issues of maintainability.
Polling for the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly is set to take place in two phases on November 13 and November 20, with vote counting scheduled for November 23.
On December 13, 2017, Madhu Koda, along with former coal secretary H.C. Gupta, former Jharkhand chief secretary A.K. Basu, and Koda’s associate Vijay Joshi, was sentenced to three years in prison by a trial court for engaging in corrupt practices and conspiring in the allocation of the Rajhara North Coal Block to the Kolkata-based company Vini Iron and Steel Udyog Limited (VISUL).
The court also imposed fines of Rs. 50 lakh on VISUL, Rs. 25 lakh on Koda, and Rs. 1 lakh each on Gupta and Basu as part of the UPA-era coal scam. All convicts were granted bail while their appeals were pending.
Koda sought to suspend his December 2017 conviction in order to run in the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections. According to the Representation of the People Act, any individual convicted of a crime and sentenced to a minimum of two years in prison is automatically disqualified from serving as an MP, MLA, or member of a state legislative council (MLC). This disqualification remains in effect for six years after their release from prison.
The CBI argued that Madhu Koda’s fresh plea seeking a stay on his conviction is not maintainable, as a similar application had already been dismissed by the high court in May 2020. At that time, the court declined to stay Koda’s conviction, stating that it would be inappropriate to allow him to contest elections until he was fully acquitted.
The high court emphasized that “those charged with crimes ought to be disqualified from contesting elections to public offices” and staying Koda’s conviction would enable him to bypass this disqualification.
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