Hardik Patel’s election plans jolted as HC refuses to stay his conviction in rioting case
Hardik cannot contest elections if the court doesn’t stay his conviction
Ahmedabad: In a setback to Congress and its leader Hardik Patel, the Gujrat High Court on Friday refused to stay the conviction of Hardik, chopping down his hopes of contesting the Lok Sabha elections.
Hardik was in 2018 convicted in a rioting case and the court had ordered two year imprisonment for him along with two others. The case of rioting dates back to 2015 during the Patidar protest for reservation.
Hardik filed an appeal in the high court. During the hearing, the high court had suspended the sentence of two years but didn't deal with suspending and staying the conviction.
The last date for filing nomination is April 4 in Gujarat which goes for the polls in the third phase. His lawyers said that they will be approaching the Supreme Court on Monday with an urgent plea.
He, in petition to Gujrat High Court had stated that "if the order of conviction is not stayed and suspended, then the appellant will suffer irreparable loss and he being the person of public life, social activist and leader of the community, his goal to serve the society at large by becoming Member of Parliament will ruin." It adds further that he has "all the chances to win the election and serve the society as the Member of Parliament”
The state government had strongly opposed his plea while arguing that a "lawbreaker" should not become a "lawmaker." The state government cited 17 FIRs against Hardik to prove that he has a criminal antecedent.
As per provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a person sentenced in a criminal case needs to get stay on conviction and sentence both before contesting polls.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
