Thiruvananthapuram, India - The High Court in the Indian state of Kerala has cancelled the election of PC Thomas to the national parliament. In a landmark judgement the court ruled that he had broken the law by appealing to the electorate to vote for him on religious grounds.
Mr Thomas won the Muvattupuzha constituency by a margin of 529 votes in the 2004 general elections.
It said this was because his election material at the time displayed pictures of Pope John Paul II.
'Jesus witness'
Mr Thomas belongs to the Roman Catholic church and Muvattupuzha is a Catholic stronghold. His election pamphlet carried a picture of him with Pope John Paul - who died last year - during the beatification ceremony of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
The notice was distributed widely in the constituency, and said that Mr Thomas was the former secretary of the Kerala Catholic Congress.
It said that the Pope himself had emphasised that Catholics should be present in mainstream national life.
The pamphlet described Mr Thomas as a true representative of Catholics and requested strong support from the community.
The election material also called him a "Jesus witness".
The court said that the notice was clearly exalting the voters to cast their votes on communal grounds.
It ruled that Mr Thomas was also in breach of the law by distributing a calendar which displayed a photograph of him with the pope.
The court declared PM Ismail - his nearest rival in the constituency who launched the court action - to be the new elected candidate from the constituency.
'Interesting verdict'
But the court gave Mr Thomas 30 days to approach the Supreme Court if he wanted to challenge the ruling.
Mr Thomas, a justice minister in the former National Democratic Alliance government of India, responding to the ruling by saying that he would indeed approach the Supreme Court.
He said that he had never tried to appeal to the voters through religion or religious symbols.
Mr Ismail however said that the court order was a victory for democracy and an endorsement of the true verdict of the people.
But because the court gave Mr Thomas 30 days to launch his appeal, he will be allowed to attend the winter session of parliament.
"This is a very interesting verdict," commented one Kerala lawyer.
"The court has taken a very acute stand against using religion as a campaign mode, and it will have serious implications in many other cases too," he said.