He Has A Political Career Running Into More Than 35 Years: Delhi HC Stays Conviction Of Former Union Minister Dilip Ray For Contesting Elections

The Delhi High Court stayed the conviction of former Union Minister Dilip Ray in a coal scam case for letting him contest Odisha State elections.

Ray had filed an application under Section 398(1) read with Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), seeking suspension of the conviction order on the ground that he had to contest the upcoming elections of Odisha Legislative Assembly 2024.

A Single Bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma observed, “In this regard, this Court is of the opinion that the applicant herein has a long political career. He has remained the Union Minister on several occasions as well as the State Minister in the Odisha Government. He is 71 years of age and wishes to contest elections to be held in the month of May, 2024 and serve his constituency and the country. It is not as if he has expressed his desire to do so only for the purpose of suspension of his conviction by contesting the election for the first time. He has a political career running into more than 35 years. As noted above, the elections are to be held in the year 2024, he is 71 years of age, and multiple appeals and cross-appeals have been filed in this case which will take time to be heard and are not likely to be heard and decided in the nearest future.”

The Bench said that in case Ray’s prayer is not allowed, he will lose chance to contest election and an irreversible consequence and irreversible damage to his political career and desire to serve his constituency will be caused to him.

Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Pramod Kumar Dubey represented the appellant while Senior Advocate R.S. Cheema represented the respondent.

Facts of the Case -

The case was related to allocation of 105.153 hectares of non-nationalized, abandoned coal mining area in district Giridih, Jharkhand in favour of M/s. Castron Technologies Ltd. by 14th Screening Committee, Ministry of Coal, Government of India. It was the case of the prosecution that after the allegations of corruption came to be levelled against certain public servants, an examination on the allocation of various coal blocks to private companies was started by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Thereafter, the CVC had made a reference to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after finding sufficient material. The CBI had initially conducted certain preliminary enquiries in the matter.

However, when sufficient incriminating material qua such allocation of coal blocks came on record during the course of enquiry warranting detailed investigation, then a number of regular cases were registered for the offences under Section 120-B/420 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC), and Section 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (PC Act). Upon completion of investigation, CBI had filed a final report under Section 173 of CrPC against six accused persons including Dilip Ray, who was the then Minister of State for Coal, for the offences under Section 120-B/420 of IPC and Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of PC Act. He was convicted by the Trial Court vide an order for the offence punishable under Sections 120B/409/420 of IPC and Section 13(1)(c)/13(1)(d) of PC Act was sentenced to undergo sentence of 3 years and payment of fine in, arising out of FIR registered with CBI, New Delhi.

The High Court in the above context of the case noted, “After going through the same, this Court is of the opinion that in the present case, the applicant has been sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for three years by the learned Trial Court in the year 2020. In the year 2020 itself, after going through the record, this Court had suspended the sentence awarded to the applicant after going through the entire record as is mentioned in the order dated 27.10.2020 while admitting the appeal and issuing notice to the respondents.”

Accordingly, the High Court disposed of the application and stayed the conviction of the appellant.

Cause Title- Dilip Ray v. Central Bureau of Investigation (Neutral Citation: 2024:DHC:2823)

Appearance:

Appellant: Senior Advocates Mukul Rohtagi, Pramod Kumar Dubey, Advocates Mahesh Agarwal, Ankur Saigal, Ankit Banati, Shravan Niranjan, Himanshu Bajaj, Gaurav Khanna, Keshav Sehgal, Anurag Andly, and Satyam Sharma.

Respondents: Senior Advocate R.S. Cheema, SPP.

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