Author: Tanu Sharma
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: January 24, 2007
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/21599.html
Praising cricketer-turned politician Navjot
Singh Sidhu for choosing "a moral path" to "set high standards
in public life by resigning from his seat... to get a fresh mandate from the
people", the Supreme Court today stayed his conviction in a road rage
death case.
Hours later, the BJP announced Sidhu would
be contesting the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat he had quit last month after his
conviction by the Punjab and Haryana High Court which handed him a three-year
prison term.
Observing it to be a "fit case"
for suspending the conviction order, the Supreme Court bench of Justices G
P Mathur and R V Raveendran directed: "The order of conviction passed
on December 1, 2006 and the sentence awarded on December 6 are suspended."
"In the event prayer made by the appellant
is not granted, he would suffer irreparable injury as he would not be able
to contest for the seat which he has held and has fallen vacant only on account
of his voluntary resignation which he did purely on moral grounds," the
judges noted, granting Sidhu reprieve well in time. Nominations for the polls
close on January 25.
Sidhu had appealed against the Punjab and
Haryana HC order which handed him a three-year prison term for the death in
1988 of 65-year-old Gurnam Singh. Justice Mathur, who wrote for the Bench,
said, "The legal position is clear that an appellate court can suspend
or grant stay of order of conviction." After the stay order, BJP president
Rajnath Singh said: "The central election committee of the party has
already resolved that Sidhu would be fielded again from the constituency if
his conviction is stayed. Therefore, he will be our candidate again from Amritsar."
tanu.sharma@expressindia.com
