Mohammed Faizal to continue as Lakshadweep MP as Supreme Court stays Kerala HC order refusing to suspend conviction

This means that Faizal, who was disqualified as MP following the high court order, will remain MP during the pendency of the appeal before the Supreme Court.

Appearing for Faizal, senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued that it was a fight between the Congress and the NCP workers and that the witnesses were all Congres workers and no independent witnesses. He contended that there was no weapon of offence in the FIR initially but it was introduced later. Sibal pointed out that Faizal’s tenure would end in May 2024 and the seat should not be allowed to go unrepresented.

Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, who appeared for the Union Territory administration, urged the court not to grant any interim relief.

On January 11, 2023, a Kavaratti sessions court sentenced Faizal and three others to 10 years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each of them for attempting to kill Mohammed Salih, son-in-law of the late Congress leader and former Union minister P M Sayeed, during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Two days later, the Lok Sabha Secretariat notified Faizal’s disqualification as an MP under the Representation of the People Act.

On January 25, the Kerala High Court suspended Faizal’s conviction and sentencing, noting that the Lok Sabha elections were only one-and-a-half years away and a bypoll at this juncture would lead to wasteful expenditure.

The Union Territory of Lakshadweep and the man whom Faizal was held guilty of attempting to kill appealed against the high court order and it was heard by a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan on August 22. The bench raised doubts over the high court suspending the conviction only on the grounds of the prospect of elections. It said the high court had not considered the true position of law concerning how an application for a stay on conviction must be considered.

It set aside the August 22 order “on this short ground alone” and remitted the matter back to the high court, which on October 3 refused to suspend his conviction.