By IANS,
Kochi : The Kerala High Court Tuesday unseated Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) legislator M.J. Jacob who had defeated veteran United Democratic Front (UDF) leader T.M. Jacob in the April 2006 assembly polls.
The single bench of Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, after hearing a petition filed by T.M. Jacob’s agent A. Narayanan, ruled that M.J. Jacob had personally attacked the UDF leader through leaflets which amounted to character assassination.
The court also denied a stay on the verdict for a period of one month so as to enable M.J. Jacob to file an appeal in the apex court of the country.
“I will certainly appeal in the Supreme Court,” M.J. Jacob told reporters after the verdict.
T.M. Jacob, who had contested the polls from Ernakulam district’s Piravom constituency as a Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K) candidate, was happy with the verdict.
“This is a lesson to those who resort to a vicious and malicious campaign during election time,” he said.
His defeat then had surprised many as he had been a legislator from 1977 till 2006. He also served as minister for 14 years until he was denied a berth when Oommen Chandy became chief minister in 2004.
T.M. Jacob, who heads Kerala Congress (Jacob), then became one of Chandy’s adversaries and allied his party with former chief minister K. Karunakaran’s DIC-K. After the poll defeat, he parted ways with Karunakaran and rejuvenated his own party and has now returned to the Congress-led UDF.