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The High Court had considered whether Raja could claim the benefit of Scheduled Caste in relation to State of Kerala when it had been admitted that his parents had migrated from Tamil Nadu
CPI(M) leader A Raja has approached Supreme Court of India challenging the Kerala High Court's 2023 decision to set aside his which elections from the Devikulam Assembly constituency.
The top court's bench of Justices Abhay S Oka, Asaduddin Amanullah and AG Masih heard Raja's plea today.
Senior Advocate V Giri appeared for Raja whereas, Senior Advocate Narendra Hooda appeared for the complainant.
Court had earlier asked the complainant if High Court could have made a finding on Raja's caste status when the caste certificate was not challenged.
Today, the bench was informed that in the election petition, the caste certificate was in fact challenged.
Accordingly, Justice Oka went on to ask if the High Court could set aside the caste certificate without hearing the competent authority concerned.
"Our question is also that can this certificate be challenged in an election petition? Can the court go into the challenge to caste certificate when the authority who had issued it is not before the court?", the bench asked.
The matter has now been adjourned to September 25th as Justice Amanullah, who was appearing virtually, was not provided with some judgments cited before court.
Notably the High Court had declared Raja's 2021 election void on the grounds that he was not a member of 'Hindu Parayan' within the State of Kerala and was accordingly not qualified to be chosen to fill the Devikulam Assembly constituency that had been reserved for Scheduled Caste among Hindus.
In April this year, the High Court's order was stayed by the Supreme Court.
Case Title: A. Raja vs. D Kumar
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