New Delhi, Dec. 23 -- The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the conviction of former Maharashtra minister Manikrao Shivaji Kokate in a three-decade-old cheating and forgery case paving the way for him to rejoin the Assembly.
The court further directed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader not to hold any office of profit as it admitted his appeal, observing that the trial court order convicting him in the case had committed a "fundamental error". "A false declaration does not make it a case of forgery. There is a fundamental error in the trial court's judgment of conviction. This requires examination," a special vacation bench of CJI Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said.P9
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