Supreme Court upholds election of Kerala Left MLA A Raja from SC/ST seat

The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the the Kerala High Court decision to quash the election of Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate A Raja from Devikulam constituency in the 2021 State assembly election as void under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. [D Kumar v A Raja]..A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Augustine George Masih allowed Raja's appeal against the High Court verdict and dismissed the election petition which was filed on the ground that Raja was a Christian and could therefore, not contest polls from the seat reserved for scheduled caste category. "The appeal is allowed. High Court order set aside. Election plea set aside. Petitioner is entitled to hold the legislative post from the beginning," the Court said.The High Court had held in March 2023 that Devikulam was a seat reserved for scheduled caste (SC) community and since Raja was professing Christianity at the time of his nomination, he could not have contested from the seat reserved for SC community.Raja could not have raised claim of belonging to Hindu religion after conversion to Christianity, the High Court underscored..The Supreme Court while allowing the appeal and setting aside the High Court judgment held that a caste/community certificate cannot be assailed in an election petition."We have no hesitation to hold that a Caste/Community Certificate cannot be assailed in an Election Petition. A duly issued Caste/Community Certificate would be amenable to challenge only under the provisions of the statute concerned, and not in an Election Petition. In case no statute governing the field in a State/Union Territory is operative, the Madhuri Patil (supra) guidelines, as modified in Dayaram (supra), shall be followed," the Court ruled..The High Court judgment was passed on an election petition filed by Congress candidate D Kumar challenging Raja’s election on the ground that the Constituency seat filled by him was reserved for SC among Hindus within the State of Kerala.The petitioner contended that since Raja was a Christian, he violated the Representation of the People Act by occupying the seat reserved for Hindus.He pointed out that even though he had raised this objection before the returning officer, it was rejected without assigning a reason and thereby Raja won the election within a margin of 7,848 votes.The counsel for Raja argued that he belonged to the Hindu Parayan community which is a scheduled caste in relation to Tamil Nadu and that he would be eligible for reservation for scheduled caste in Kerala because his grandparents had migrated to Kerala and had continued as Hindus before 1950. His parents had not actually converted to Christianity and he was never baptised, it was contended. .However, the High Court went through various documents like Raja's wedding photographs, family register of CSI Church, baptism registers of the church, etc., and concluded that Raja was actually professing Christianity at the time when he had submitted his nomination and converted to Christianity long before its submission.Therefore, the Court allowed the Election Petition and declared Raja’s 2021 election to be void.Raja then approached the Supreme Court..[Read Judgment].[Read Live Coverage]