New Delhi: The membership of Lakshadweep MP Mohammad Faizal was restored by the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Thursday following the directions of the Supreme Court.
He was disqualified on October 4. The Secretariat, in a notification on Thursday, restored his membership to Lok Sabha.
The Supreme Court on October 9 stayed a recent Kerala High Court order that rejected the MP's plea for suspending his conviction in an attempt to murder case. Following the Kerala HC order, Faizal faced disqualification as an MP for the second time. After the apex court's stay, he can now continue as an MP.
The bench, comprising Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice Sanjay Karol, while staying the High Court’s order, also said that the benefit of suspension of conviction from the August 22 remand order of the Supreme Court will be operational.
The August 22 order of the SC remanded the order back to the HC for reconsidering suspension of conviction.
However, the apex court ordered that the benefit of suspension of conviction shall continue for the time.
In January, a sessions court in Lakshadweep's Kavaratti sentenced Faizal to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for attempting to kill Mohammed Salih, son-in-law of the late Union Minister P.M. Sayeed, during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Following this, Faizal was suspended from Lok Sabha on January 25.
In March, the High Court suspended his conviction and sentence in the case. Then the complainant and the Lakshadweep administration approached the apex court.
With inputs from agencies