Piravom MLA's election held void

Kochi, Feb 2 (UNI) In a significant judgement, the Kerala High Court today declared the election of Piravom MLA M J Jacob as void.

The Court also found three of the election agents of Mr Jacob guilty of corrupt practice.

The declaration was made by Mr Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan on an election petition filed by Mr A Narayanan, a voter in the Piravom constituency.

Mr Jacob, who contested the April 29 election to the State Assembly as candidate of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) was declared elected by a margin of 5,150 votes over his nearest rival and former minister T M Jacob.

The petitioner contended that the election agents of Mr M J Jacob distributed a pamphlet during the campaign containing false accusations against Mr T M Jacob. This amounted to character assassination of the candidate and was not an expression of opinion but an accusation against Mr T M Jacob's character. Thus the election agents of Mr M J Jacob committed corrupt practice, he argued.

In the pamphlet it was described that Mr T M Jacob was shielding an accused, who was a member of his personal staff.

The petitioner submitted that to falsely describe a person as a cheat or accusing him of complicity in shielding an acccused in an attempt to murder case was nothing short of attacking him personally.

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