NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hold an urgent hearing of a plea by a former BSP lawmaker Umakant Yadav seeking the stay of his conviction in a land dispute matter so that he could contest election to Uttar Pradesh assembly scheduled for next year.
A vacation bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Amitava Roy declined the early hearing of the plea as his counsel Dushyant Parashar told the bench that he has already undergone more than six years of the seven year sentence awarded to him.
Yadav, who was convicted by a court in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur town on February 7, 2012, told the court that he has already undergone six years, two months imprisonment and his appeal against his conviction and sentencing was pending before the session court there.
Convicted for offences under Indian Penal Code's section 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 469 (Forgery for purpose of harming reputation),471 (Using as genuine a forged document), and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), he is on bail at present.
Before being convicted and sentenced to jail, Yadav was member of Uttar Pradesh assembly for three terms and an MP for one term.
The bench took exception to the lawyer telling it that the petitioner was a former MP.
"Don't tell us all this. For us all are equal," it observed.
Referring to earlier verdicts of the top court including in the case of actor Sanjay Dutt in 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blast case, Yadav said that the absence of the stay of conviction and sentence including fine came in the way of his contesting the upcoming assembly elections.
His plea for the suspension of conviction and fine was earlier rejected by the Jaunpur sessions judge on December 16, 2013 and the Allahabad High court too declined it.