SC reprieve for Raja; court stays disqualification judgment

Kochi: The Supreme Court has granted a stay on the decision to invalidate the election in the Devikulam constituency and disqualify A Raja as MLA.

The Court granted a stay till July when the case will be heard again. Till then, Raja can participate in Assembly proceedings. At the same time, the court also clarified that he will not be allowed to vote on any bill.

The Kerala High Court had annulled the election of CPM candidate A Raja from the Devikulam reserved seat during the 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly poll.

The court found A Raja ineligible for Scheduled Caste (SC) reservation as he is a Christian convert from an SC community.

The second-placed Congress candidate D Kumar had filed a petition in the HC challenging Raja's victory. The petition had claimed that Raja, who is a Christian, contested the election by submitting false documents to prove he belonged to a Scheduled Caste.The High Court had ordered that Raja face trial in the case.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had granted a stay on the verdict for 10 days to file an appeal. But later it was dismissed due to the error in the appeal.

Subsequently, a petition was again filed in the Kerala High Court requesting that the stay period be extended by another 20 days. But Justice P Somarajan rejected the petition citing that the demand cannot be considered in a case that has been appealed in Supreme Court. With this, Raja had to wait till the apex court considered the appeal.