9 Months On, HC To Consider PIL For Disposal Of Odisha MLA’s Criminal Appeal On Aug 18

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court will on August 18 consider a PIL for expeditious disposal of the criminal appeal in which the conviction of Congress MLA from Barabati-Cuttack Mohammed Moquim in a loan scam was stayed in an interim order on October 19, 2022.

President of Cuttack Mahanagar Nagarik Mahasangha Dr Rabi Ranjan Sahoo along with two other voters of the Barabati-Cuttack Assembly constituency filed the petition, urging the court to declare that criminal appeals arising out of convictions of MLAs and MPs being a continuation of a trial be disposed of within a period of six months.

This criminal appeal has been pending without further hearing for over nine months now.

Hearing the PIL, the division bench of Justices Subhasis Talapatra and Savitri Ratho on Wednesday asked state counsel JP Patnaik to file an affidavit on the status of the criminal appeal filed by Moquim.

The Special Vigilance Court, Bhubaneswar had sentenced the Cuttack-Barabati MLA, who is the former managing director of Metro Builders, along with three others, including former IAS officer Vinod Kumar, to three years rigorous imprisonment on September 29. The court found Mouqim, Kumar, Company Secretary Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra, and Metro Builders Director Peeyush Dhari Mohanty guilty of showing undue official favour, criminal misconduct, forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy and obtaining pecuniary advantage for Metro Builders Pvt Ltd by releasing funds in the guise of loans meant for the rural poor.

The MLA filed the criminal appeal on October 1, 2022, seeking suspension of his conviction. Under the Representation of Peoples’ Act (RPA), MLAs who are fined or convicted with punishment of more than two years are disqualified. However, the interim stay on his conviction allowed him to continue as member of the state assembly.

In the interim stay order, Justice BP Routray said, “Admittedly, the appellant (Moquim) is presently continuing as a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, duly elected from Barbati-Cuttack Legislative Assembly constituency. He was elected for a term of five years and took oath on 23rd May 2019. Still, there is around one-and-a-half years to complete the term in normal circumstances. So, keeping in view his position as sitting MLA of Odisha Legislative Assembly, the loss to befall him due to the conviction would be irreparable unless the same is stayed”.