The Supreme Court (SC) has convicted former minister Govinda Raj Joshi of corruption, sentencing him to nine months in prison and fining him Rs 6.9 million.

It took over two decades for the court to give the final verdict to the case that first landed in the Special Court in 2004.

A division bench of Justices Binod Sharma and Bal Krishna Dhakal announced the verdict

after the completion of hearings that continued over a decade. The verdict was delivered after the 48th hearing in the case on Sunday.

Joshi, a former Home Minister, was originally convicted of corruption by the Special Court on July 25, 2012. At that time, he was fined Rs 21.6 million and sentenced to one and a half years in prison.

Then an influential Nepali Congress leader, Joshi had moved to the top court demanding to overturn the subordinate court's ruling.

The Supreme Court upheld the conviction but reduced the punishment to a Rs 6.9 million fine and nine months in prison.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a corruption case against Joshi at the Special Court on February 11, 2004. He was accused of amassing the assets of Rs 30.93 million between 1991 and 2001, while he led various ministerial portfolios in the Nepali Congress governments.

However, the court in 2006 acquitted Joshi claiming the constitutional anti-graft watchdog missed the statute of limitations while filing the case.

The commission challenged the Special Court's decision at the top court claiming the acquittal decision was flawed. It had to reopen the case following the apex court's directives.

Currently, the top court is prioritizing the corruption related cases that are sub judice for the years.