Supreme Court refuses to stay Kerala High Court order suspending conviction of Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the Kerala High Court order that had suspended the conviction of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Member of Parliament (MP) from Lakshadweep, PP Mohammed Faizal in an attempt-to-murder case [UT Administration of Lakshadweep vs Mohd Faizal and ors]..A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna issued notice on the appeal filed by the Union Territory of Lakshadweep against the January 25 order of the High Court and posted the matter for hearing on March 28."We will issue notice, and consider it. But no interim order. Matter has to be gone into," the Court said..On January 11, the Kavaratti Sessions Court had convicted four persons, including Faizal, for attempting to murder Padanath Salih, the son-in-law of former Union Minister and Indian National Congress leader, PM Sayeed, in relation to a political controversy during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. All four accused were effectively sentenced to undergo 10 years of rigorous imprisonment by the trial court.The very next day, on January 12, the four convicts moved an appeal before the High Court. They also filed applications to suspend their conviction and sentence and release them on bail during the pendency of their appeal. The Kerala High Court on January 25 suspended the conviction and sentence imposed by the trial court prompting the present appeal before the apex court.The plea by Lakshadweep raised the concern that the implications of the High Court order would be that every conviction and sentence of elected politicians would have to be suspended to avoid the financial burden of bye-elections..Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, appearing or Lakshadweep, told the apex court on Monday that the order under challenge was against all settled principles of criminal law jurisprudence. Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Ritin Rai, appearing for Faizal, pointed out that the MP is currently not being able to attend parliament. Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy appearing for the original complainant in the case pointed out that the accused had not disclosed that the Deputy Superintendent of Police concerned was related to him.The Court after hearing the parties sought Faizal's response but declined to pass any stay order..After the trial court had convicted Faizal, he had been disqualified from holding the office of Member of Parliament and a notification in this regard was also issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat.Subsequently, the Election Commission (EC) had also notified bye-elections to his constituency.However, Faizal had then moved the Supreme Court challenging the announcement by the EC to hold bye-elections.The Supreme Court had disposed of that plea on January 27 after the EC assured the top court that it will act in line with the Kerala High Court order suspending the conviction..[Read order]