HC observes in a full verdict: Convicts cannot contest election till appeals pending with courts
Staff Reporter :
In the full text of a verdict the High Court has observed that granting bail to a convicted person in a case does not mean his sentence is also suspended.
The court further observed that while the appeal filed by an accused person in the appellate court against the judgment of conviction is pending that person cannot participate in the Parliament election.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice KM Hafizul Alam passed the observation in the verdict after hearing five criminal appeal petitions.
The HC bench said, “The trial judge after assessing the evidence on record has convicted the appellant-petitioners. They have preferred appeals which are pending before this court. Therefore, in spite of pending of appeal, their status is that they are convicted persons.
This court has not suspended the sentence of the petitioners, but they have been enlarged on bail by this court. By operation of the bail order, the order of sentence is deemed to have been suspended, but the conviction is still in force.”
The HC further said, “There is no scope to suspend the conviction of the appellant-petitioner on the ground of facilitating them to participate in the election of Parliament, since as per the provision of Article 66(2)(d) of Constitution, the appellant petitioners are disqualified to contest or participate in election of Parliament.”
The HC said though the convict-appellant-petitioners have been enlarged on bail, the question of suspension of conviction does not arise at all.
Accordingly, the convict-appellant-petitioners are debarred from participating in election of Parliament unless a period of 5 years has elapsed since their release or their conviction and sentence are set aside by the apex court in view of Article 66(2)(d) of the Constitution.
Wadud Bhuiyan, Md Abdul Wahab, Md Mashiur Rahman, Dr AZM Zahid Hossain and Aman Ullah Aman filed the criminal appeal petitions against their conviction handed down by the trial courts in corruption cases.
These applications were filed under section 426 and section 561(A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 by the convict appellant-petitioners for suspending or staying the operation of the conviction and sentence passed by the judges of the trial courts.
However, the court said it didn’t find any substances in these applications. In consequences thereof, the applications filed by the appellant petitioners seeking suspension of conviction and sentence were rejected.
The HC asked the parties to take necessary steps for a quick disposal of the criminal appeals.
The verdict has been released on the SC website on Sunday, while the HC bench passed the short verdict on 27th of November, 2018.
In the verdict the court further said, “Even a person who has been lawfully elected in the election of Parliament but subsequently convicted and sentenced, in that case as per the provision of Article 67(1)(d) of the Constitution, his seat as Member of Parliament will automatically be vacated.
If a person is elected in the election of Parliament hiding his conviction and sentence and if subsequently it is found that the said person was convicted and sentenced more than 2 years by a competent court of law, in that case also, his seat as a member of Parliament will also be vacated as per Article 66(2) (d) of the Constitution.”