New Delhi: Mohammed Faizal was on Wednesday, October 4, disqualified as the Lok Sabha member from Lakshadweep following the Kerala high court’s refusal on Tuesday to suspend his conviction in an attempt to murder case.
“In view of order dated 03.10.2023 of the Hon’ble High Court of Kerala, Shri Mohammed Faizal P.P., Member of Lok Sabha representing the Lakshadweep Parliamentary Constituency of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep, stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction, i.e. 11th January, 2023,” a Lok Sabha Secretariat bulletin stated.
This is the second time that the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader has been disqualified.
On Tuesday, the high court refused to suspend his conviction but suspended the sentence.
According to LiveLaw, Justice N. Nagaresh said that criminalisation of the election process is of grave concern to democracy and if persons with criminal antecedents are permitted to continue as elected representatives even after conviction by a competent court, “that would only send wrong signals to public at large”.
The judge said that a conviction can only be suspended under section 389 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) if the Court was satisfied that the case was frivolous. He said conviction can be suspended if the court is satisfied that the convicted person “does not suffer from a certain disqualification or damage that cannot be undone” only in rare cases, under special circumstances.
The high court relied on the Supreme Court’s recent decision to suspend the conviction of Rahul Gandhi, which said that conviction “cannot be suspended by only looking at the ramifications” but after considering all relevant aspects.
In January this year, Faizal and three others were convicted for attempting to murder a Congress leader’s son-in-law during the 2009 general elections. The court sentenced him to 10 years in jail, which led to his automatic disqualification from the Lok Sabha. A couple of weeks later, another single-judge bench of the Kerala high court suspended his conviction. The thrust of the court’s order was on the expenditure to the exchequer that the by-election would cause. He was eventually reinstated as a member of the Lok Sabha.
In August, the Supreme Court set aside that order, asking the high court to consider the matter afresh. It said that if the high court’s reasoning was allowed to stand, the conviction and sentence of every elected politician would have to be suspended to avoid the financial burden of bye-elections.
Note: This article was originally published at 6:44 pm on October 3, 2023 and republished at 10:05 pm on October 4, 2023 after Faizal was disqualified as an MP.