Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday decided to stay its verdict disqualifying Devikulam MLA A Raja after he was found ineligible to contest from the seat reserved for Scheduled Communities. 

The stay will be in effect for 10 days, which is the time given for Raja to appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict.

The Devikulam constituency is reserved for Scheduled Caste among Hindus and Raja’s claim is that his parents were Hindus and hence he was eligible to contest.

In its order yesterday, the court declared that Raja is not a member of the ‘Hindu Parayan’ community within the state of Kerala and thus not qualified to contest from the constituency.

In the 2021 Assembly elections, A Raja won from the Devikulam constituency against Congress candidate D Kumar by a margin of 7,847 votes.

The petitioner, Kumar, had claimed that Raja, who is a Christian, contested the election by submitting false documents to prove he belonged to a Scheduled Caste.