Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal's disqualification removed
Lok Sabha membership of Lakshwadeep MP Mohammad Faizal was restored by Lok Sabha Secretariat on Wednesday. According to a notification issued on January 13 by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Faizal was disqualified from Lok Sabha membership as of January 11 after being convicted in an attempt to murder case.
FollowAhead of the Supreme Court hearing, the Lok Sabha secretariat revoked its order on MP Mohammed Faizal disqualification on Wednesday (March 29). Faizal was disqualified following a 10-year jail term in an attempt to murder case, but the Kerala high court stayed his conviction on January 25. This comes hours before the Supreme Court is scheduled to examine his plea alleging that the Lok Sabha secretariat did not restore his membership despite a stay of conviction by the HC.
The petition was listed before a bench comprising Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna. The counsel on Tuesday had told Supreme Court that the refusal to revoke the disqualification, even after the conviction of the MP was stayed, is highly arbitrary. Justice Joseph then asked why can't the petitioner move the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution.
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According to Faizal, a “false case” was registered against him on January 5, 2016 at Androth island police station. While the trial was ongoing, he was elected to Lok Sabha in 2019. On January 11, 2023, Faizal and three others were sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and penalised them each Rs. one lakh on January 11, 2023, for attempting to murder Mohammed Salih, the late Union Minister P M Sayeed's son-in-law, during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
On January 13, the Lok Sabha Secretariat notified Faizal’s disqualification under Section 8(3) of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, which mandates instant exclusion of any "person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than two years."
Rahul Gandhi was disqualified under this provision after being given a two-year prison term for defamation by a Surat magistrate's court.
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