In a blow to former Union minister P C Thomas, the Kerala [Images] High Court on Tuesday declared as void his election from the Muvattupuzha Lok Sabha constituency and held P M Ismail of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) elected from the seat.

In an 81-page judgment, Justice C N Ramachandran Nair disqualified Thomas on the ground that he used his religious background to woo voters during the polls on May 10, 2004.

The court said Thomas had indulged in corrupt practices under two sections of the Representation of the People Act -- 123(3) for circulating leaflets and calendars seeking votes of Christians and 123(5) for using vehicles to transport voters to polling booths.

A leaflet dated April 21, 2004 and published in the name of John Kachiramattum, an office bearer of the Catholic Congress, said Pope John Paul II had exhorted Christians, who comprise about two per cent of the population, not to keep away from the national mainstream. It was also stated that Thomas had attended the beatification ceremony of Mother Teresa at Rome and that he had kissed the Pope's palm.

After stating that 'our community' can be proud of Thomas, a former member of the Catholic Congress, the leaflet compared him to the biblical character Joseph, who was elevated as ruler by aliens in the presence of Christ.

There was a specific request in the leaflet to vote for Thomas who was a described as a representative of Christians, the court pointed out. The calendar had photographs of Thomas, the Pope and Mother Teresa.

From the evidence, it was proved beyond doubt that 50,000 copies each of the leaflets and calendars had been printed and extensively circulated in the constituency by Thomas's party workers and with his knowledge, the court said. It accepted all the contentions raised by the petitioner, Ismail, who had been his opponent in the election.

"But for the corrupt practices, the defeated candidate would have got at least 265 votes more than the votes polled by Thomas," the court held. Thomas had been elected by a margin of 529 votes. The court granted a one-month stay on the operation of the judgment to enable Thomas to file an appeal. Thomas said he will file an appeal in the Supreme Court against Tuesday's judgment.

He had contested the parliamentary election on the ticket of the Indian Federal Demcoratic Party, which was floated by him. IFDP was a partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance coalition and Thomas was minister of state for law in the previous government.

However, Thomas recently merged his party with the Kerala Congress-Joseph, a coalition partner of the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala.