The Kerala High Court has rejected a plea by NCP MP Mohammed Faizal for suspension of his conviction in an attempt-to-murder case, stating that if individuals with prison antecedents are permitted to proceed as Members of Parliament/Legislatures even after conviction, it could solely ship incorrect alerts to the general public at giant.
With this, the Lok Sabha MP as soon as once more confronted the results of incurring disqualification underneath the Representation of People Act.
Examining the matter afresh after the Supreme Court’s order of August 22, a single-judge bench of Justice N Nagaresh famous that the petitioner has been concerned in three different prison circumstances, although these circumstances haven’t resulted in conviction up to now.
The court docket additionally famous the incident of assault that occurred on April 16, 2009, was in reference to basic elections and there are eyewitnesses to it, and the sufferer was to be taken to a hospital on the mainland in a helicopter for remedy the place he remained as an in-patient for 14 days.
“Criminalisation of election process is of grave concern in our democratic polity. The tentacles of political crimes and criminalisation of election process have started grappling free and fair elections. Incidents of criminal acts being committed even during meeting of legislative bodies are surfacing. Proliferation of crime in election process could garner momentum to cripple Indian democracy, if men with criminal background are allowed to continue to be part of the democratic system,” the bench stated.
The court docket additionally identified that in view of the regulation laid down by the Supreme Court on suspension of the order of conviction, the standards and threshold restrict for grant of suspension of sentence and the standards and threshold restrict for grant of suspension of the order of conviction can’t be the identical.
The choose, thus, held, “As there are materials prima facie evidencing the criminal acts on the part of the accused, I am of the firm view that this is not a fit case to suspend the order of conviction imposed on the 2nd petitioner. The prayer of the 2nd petitioner for suspension of the order of conviction is therefore rejected.”
The court docket ordered that the suspension of sentence of all 4 accused as per the order of January 25, 2023, with circumstances would proceed for now, pending remaining disposal of the enchantment.
The accused represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal contended that hardly 9 months are left for basic elections to Parliament and if he’s disqualified now, the harm that might end result won’t be one which could be undone.
“The question then is whether an accused in a criminal case is entitled to get the order of conviction suspended whenever and wherever the order of conviction would result in damage which cannot be undone,” the bench requested.
The court docket, nevertheless, stated, “The stay on conviction must be granted only in rare cases and that too only under special circumstances.”
Referring to a number of SC judgements, the bench stated that the appellate court docket can droop an order of conviction within the train of the powers underneath Section 389(1) CrPC in a match case if it finds that the case is frivolous.
It additional identified that if the appellate court docket feels glad that an order of conviction must be suspended or stayed in order that the convicted particular person doesn’t undergo from a sure disqualification supplied for in another statute, it could droop the order of conviction in circumstances the place the harm achieved can’t be undone.
“However, even in such cases, the court has a duty to look into all other aspects of the case,” it stated.
The bench additionally referred to Rahul Gandhi’s case through which the highest court docket had on August 4, 2023, suspended the conviction after discovering that no cause was given by the trial choose for imposing the utmost sentence, which has the impact of incurring disqualification underneath Section 8(3) of the Act.
On January 11, 2023, Faizal and three others had been sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 1 lakh every by a classes court docket in Kavaratti in Lakshadweep for trying to kill Mohammed Salih, son-in-law of the late union minister PM Sayeed, in the course of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.
On January 25, 2023, the Kerala High Court suspended Faizal’s conviction and sentence.
On SLPs by the administration of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and the complainant, the SC put aside the HC order and remanded the case again to resolve it afresh, saying it has not thought of the true place of regulation with respect to the way through which software for keep on conviction must be thought of.
Source: www.news18.com
