EC defers Lok Sabha bypoll to Lakshadweep seat
“After considering the matter and having due regard to the order passed by Hon’ble High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam dated 25th January, 2023, the Election Commission of India has decided to withhold the bye election and to defer the issuance of notification for holding the bye election in Lakshadweep (ST),” ECI said in a statement.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday withheld the bypoll to Lakshadweep Lok Sabha seat, days after the Kerala high court suspended the conviction and sentence of sitting MP Mohammed Faizal in a 2009 attempt to murder case.
“After considering the matter and having due regard to the order passed by Hon’ble High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam dated 25th January, 2023, the Election Commission of India has decided to withhold the bye election and to defer the issuance of notification for holding the bye election in Lakshadweep (ST),” ECI said in a statement.
On January 18, the poll panel announced the by-election in the island archipelago and it was to be held on February 27. The EC move came after the Kavaratti district sessions court on January 11 convicted Faizal, a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), along with three others, including his brother, and sentenced them to 10-year imprisonment for attacking with an intention to kill a Congress worker ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
However, the Kerala high court’s single bench of Justice Becchu Kurian Thomas on January 25 extended the relief to all four convicted in the 2009 case.
Three days after his conviction by the local court, the Lok Sabha secretariat issued a notification disqualifying Faizal, who has represented the Union territory since 2014, from parliament. His disqualification is yet to be revoked.
“The bye election in… Lakshadweep was announced due to disqualification of Mohammed Faizal PP on ground of conviction by the Court of Sessions, Kavaratti, Lakshadweep in Sessions case no. 01/2017 from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 11 January, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” the ECI statement added.
