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High Court sets aside election of P. C. Thomas

Staff Reporter

Declares P. M. Ismail of the CPI(M) elected

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday declared void the election of P.C. Thomas, former Minister of State for Law and Justice in the previous NDA Government, from the Muvattupuzha Parliament constituency.

Justice C. N. Ramachandran Nair also declared elected his nearest rival candidate P. M. Ismail of the CPI(M) from the constituency. Mr. Thomas won the seat by a margin of 529 votes.

The court, however, stayed its verdict for 30 days to enable Mr. Thomas to approach the Supreme Court against the declarations.

The judge made the declarations while allowing an election petition filed by Mr. Ismail challenging the election of Mr. Thomas to the Lok Sabha.

The court set aside the election of Mr. Thomas as it found that he had committed corrupt practice under Section 123(3) of the Representation of People Act by appealing to the electorate to vote for him on the ground of his community.

The petitioner had alleged that by publishing, distributing and circulating a notice along with a picture calendar of the Pope, Mr. Thomas indulged in corrupt practices under Section 123(3) of the Act. The notices appealed to the Catholic community to vote for Mr. Thomas.

The notice distributed by Mr. Thomas' election agents said that he was the former State Secretary of the Catholic Congress.

The notice also mentioned that the Pope had exhorted that the Christian community should not be kept away from the national mainstream.

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