The candidature of Samajwadi Party’s nominee for Lucknow constituency in Uttar Pradesh, cine star Sanjay Dutt, went for a toss when the Supreme Court rejected the actor’s plea to suspend his conviction and sentence under the Arms Act in 1993 Mumbai serial blast case in order to facilitate his contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The Supreme Court bench which included Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice R.M. Lodha ruled that “In view of the serious offence for which he has been convicted by the Special Judge, we are not inclined to suspend the conviction and sentence awarded by the special judge in the present case.”

Sanjay’s counsel, Harish Salve, argued that Snjay is a well know cine artiste with a huge fan following and that Sanjay’s father late Sunil Dutt had also been a famous actor before he entered politics and that Dutt is neither habitual criminal no has he been involved in any other case.”

While the judges acknowledged the contribution of Sanjay Dutt as an artist, they ruled that “despite all these favourable circumstances, we do not think it is a fit case where conviction and sentence could be suspended so that the bar under Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act will not operate against him.”

“Law prohibits any person who has been convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years from contesting the election and such person shall be disqualified for a further period of six years since his release,” declared the judges adding that the court’s power to say the conviction to enable a convict to contest “shall be exercised only under exceptional circumstances.”

The bottom line is: Sanjay Dutt cannot contest the Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow this time. That is his ‘luck’ for ‘now’!

Munna Bhai may be able to do anything in “reel” life but it must have dawned on him that it is quite a different story when it comes to Sanju Baba in real life!