Despite jail term, Navjot Singh Sidhu can contest polls: Legal expert

New Delhi, May 19

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu can contest future elections despite the Supreme Court sentencing him to one-year jail in a 1988 road rage case, a legal expert said on Thursday, citing provisions of the electoral law.

“If the sentence was two years or more, then he would have been disqualified from contesting elections for six years,” legal expert and former Lok Sabha secretary general P D T Achary told PTI, citing Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act-1951 which deals with disqualification.

The former cricketer had recently contested the Assembly polls but had lost.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and S K Kaul allowed the review plea filed by the victim’s family on the issue of the sentence awarded to Sidhu.

Though the apex court had in May 2018 held Sidhu guilty of the offence of “voluntarily causing hurt” to a 65-year-old man in the case, it spared him a jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 1,000.

“…we feel there is an error apparent on the face of record … therefore, we have allowed the review application on the issue of sentence. In addition to the fine imposed, we consider it appropriate to impose a sentence of imprisonment for a period of one year…,” the bench said while pronouncing the verdict.

In September 2018, the apex court had agreed to examine the review petition filed by the family members of the deceased.