NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, APRIL 12
Gujarat Congress leader Hardik Patel on Tuesday said that his aim was not just to contest elections but also to serve the people, soon after the Supreme Court stayed his conviction in a 2015 rioting and arson case, paving the way for him to fight upcoming polls.
सिर्फ़ चुनाव लड़ना ही मेरा मक़सद नही है बल्कि गुजरात के लोगों की सेवा मज़बूती से कर पाऊँ यही मेरा उद्देश हैं। आज से तीन साल पहलें एक झूठे मुक़दमे में मुझे दो साल की सजा सुनाई थी लेकिन आज सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने दो साल की सजा पर रोक लगाई है, मैं न्यायपालिका का ह्रदय से धन्यवाद करता हूँ।
— Hardik Patel ( Modi Ka Parivar ) (@HardikPatel_) April 12, 2022
Patel had spearheaded the Patidar community campaign in Gujarat in 2015 seeking reservation under the OBC category. The assembly elections are due in Gujarat in December this year.
“My aim is not only to contest elections but also to serve the people of Gujarat with strength. Three years ago, I was sentenced to two years in jail in a false case, but today the Supreme Court has stayed the sentence. I thank the judiciary from the heart,” tweeted Patel, the working president of Congress in Gujarat, in Hindi.
गुजरात की युवा शक्ति नए निर्माण के साथ भारत के नवनिर्माण में अपना योगदान देने के लिए तैयार हैं। pic.twitter.com/rvhnYevROS
— Hardik Patel ( Modi Ka Parivar ) (@HardikPatel_) April 11, 2022
Earlier in the day, a Supreme Court bench stayed Patel’s conviction in the rioting and arson case and said, “Having regard to the facts and circumstances, we are of the view that this is the fit case for the high court to have stayed the conviction. The conviction is, hereby, stayed until the appeals are decided accordingly”.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by Patel against the judgment of the Gujarat High Court seeking suspension of the conviction so that he could contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Patel had sought a direction to suspend the conviction order passed on July 25, 2018, by a sessions court in Mahesana in Visnagar. The court had sentenced Patel to two years in jail in the rioting and arson case lodged against him and others during the state-wide Patidar agitation in 2015. He had also challenged the validity of the high court’s order of March 29, 2019, refusing his plea for a stay on the conviction.
As per the Representation of the People Act, a convict facing jail term of two year or more cannot contest an election unless the conviction is stayed.
