NEW DELHI:The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce its judgment on Punjab Tourism Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu’s appeal against a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict sentencing him to three-year imprisonment in a 1988 road rage case on Tuesday.If the court upholds Sidhu’s conviction and the three-year jail term or convicts him of murder, it would virtually end his political career.
Under the present election law, a lawmaker (MP/MLA) immediately loses his seat on conviction and becomes ineligible to contest elections for six years, after the end of the sentence.According to the prosecution, Patiala resident Gurnam Singh had died, allegedly after being beaten up by Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu.
A bench of Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had on April 18 reserved its verdict on cross-appeals filed by Sidhu and Sandhu, who was also convicted and sentenced to a three-year jail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case.