One Cannot Claim To Belong To The Hindu Religion After His Conversion To Christianity - Kerala HC

On Monday, the Kerala High Court made a decision to declare the election of A Raja, who was a candidate of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the 2021 State assembly election for the Devikulam constituency void under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. According to Justice P Somarajan, the Devikulam seat was reserved for the scheduled caste (SC) community, and since Raja was a Christian at the time of his nomination, he was not eligible to contest for the seat reserved for the SC community.

The Court emphasized that Raja could not claim to belong to the Hindu religion after his conversion to Christianity. As a result of an election petition filed by Congress candidate D Kumar, Raja's election was challenged on the grounds that the seat he filled was reserved for SC Hindus within Kerala.

The person who filed the petition argued that since Raja identified as a Christian, he broke the rules set out in the Representation of the People Act. He was specifically not allowed to hold the seat that was reserved for Hindus.

The petitioner also stated that he had previously raised this issue with the returning officer, but the objection was dismissed without explanation. As a result, Raja won the election by a margin of 7,848 votes.

On the other hand, Raja's representative argued that he was part of the Hindu Parayan community, which is considered a scheduled caste in Tamil Nadu. Raja's grandparents had moved to Kerala and continued to identify as Hindus before 1950, making him eligible for scheduled caste reservation in Kerala. It was also claimed that Raja's parents never converted to Christianity and that he himself had never been baptized.

The Court examined several documents, including Raja's wedding photographs, the family register of the CSI Church, and the baptism registers of the church. Based on this evidence, the Court determined that Raja was indeed practicing Christianity when he submitted his nomination and had converted to the religion before that time.

As a result, the Court accepted the Election Petition and declared that Raja's election in 2021 was not valid.