The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the Kerala High Court order suspending the conviction of Lakshadweep Lok Sabha member Mohammed Faizal, asking it (the high court) to hear it afresh and reconsider it in six weeks.
Setting aside the High Court order, a bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, however, clarified that the benefit of the Kerala HC order would continue for Faizal till the matter is decided afresh.
Sending back the matter to the high court for fresh consideration, the bench noted that what only weighed with the High court was that Faizal was a member of parliament and any conviction would cause a fresh election for Lakshadweep Lok Sabha seat which would result in enormous expenses.
The bench said that it finds that the High Court has not considered the position of law as it emerges from the judgments of the top court on applications for a stay of conviction.
The top court order came on a plea by the Lakshadweep administration challenging the January 25, 2023, interim order passed by the Ernakulam bench of Kerala High Court.
Kerala High Court had suspended the conviction and sentence of Lakshadweep Lok Sabha member and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Mohammed Faizal and three others in a case of an attempt to murder. The Kavaratti Sessions Court had convicted four of them including Faizal.
The Kavaratti Sessions Court had convicted Faizal and three others for committing offences punishable under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 143, 147, 148, 307, 324, 342, 448, 427, 506 read with 149 relating to offences of rioting, attempt to murder, violence, kidnapping.
They were also directed to pay a fine of Rs One lakh each for allegedly attempting to murder Padanath Salih, the son-in-law of former Union Minister late P.M. Sayeed in a political controversy during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.