In a desperate attempt to fight the Lok Sabha elections, Congress Leader Hardik Patel on Monday moved the Supreme Court against the Gujarat High Court's March 29 verdict refusing to stay his conviction awarded by a Visnagar court in a rioting case during the Patidar quota stir in 2015. His petition is likely to be mentioned before the apex court for an urgent hearing on Tuesday, especially considering the fact that April 4 is the last date for filing nominations for the LS polls.

The high court's single-judge bench of Justice AG Uraizee had refused to grant Hardik any relief on the grounds of his criminal antecedents and the 17 FIRs pending against him across the state. The bench had also held that Hardik's case is not the rarest of the rare case where the court needed to intervene. The court also refused to entertain his argument that it was a case of no evidence and the lower court committed an error in convicting him. 

Justice Uraizee had remarked that it was for the appellate court, where Hardik's appeal against conviction and sentence is pending, to decide whether the lower court committed an error or not by depending on the witnesses and evidence produced by the prosecution. The bench also clarified that at this stage, it does not want to enter into the argument on whether the trial court committed an error, or not.

The state government, represented by advocate general Kamal Trivedi, had vehemently opposed Hardik's plea. Trivedi had submitted to the court that Hardik has no respect for the law and a lawbreaker should not be allowed to become a lawmaker.

As per the case details, the Patidar leader was convicted by the Visnagar court in Mehsana district in July 2018 for rioting, against which he appealed before the high court in August 2018. While the HC stayed his sentence, it did not stay his conviction, which became an impediment in his hopes of fighting the LS polls.