From a political tussle to a court battle

KOCHI: Though Jacob had faced a couple of challenges in his political career, the 2006 Assembly polls was the most difficult one. The 2006 Assembly polls in which T M Jacob and M J Jacob fought for Piravom constituency was one of the most significant polls in the political career of Jacob.In May 2008, the election of LDF candidate M J Jacob from Piravom Assembly constituency on April 29, 2006, was declared void by the Kerala High Court.The court held that M J Jacob, his election agent O N Vijayan and two others - Jinson V Paul and P G Menon - were guilty of corrupt practice under Section 123(4) of the Representation of People Act, by publishing and distributing among the voters of the constituency a pamphlet containing false statements affecting the character and conduct of UDF candidate T M Jacob. The pamphlet contained six questions addressed to T M Jacob. The second question read: ‘‘A member of your personal staff, who had attempted to murder Thirumaradi Mandalam Congress president P J Baby, Joseph Babu and K P Jacob at Onakkur, is an absconder.Can you give an answer to ordinary Congressmen in this regard?’ This question, according to the High Court, amounted to a false statement of fact affecting the personal character and conduct of T M Jacob.Similarly, the tail-piece of the pamphlet, which is an exhortation to ‘recognise the shameless hypocrite of development trickery...’ and to ‘react against the deceiver of the people...’ amounted to a statement of fact affecting the personal character and conduct of T M Jacob in the setting in which it is placed, referable to question No 2. The publication of the pamphlet containing the statements had been made by M J Jacob, his election agent and two other persons.M J Jacob had owned up the responsibility of the publication by meeting its expenses through his election agent and showing such expenditure as expenditure incurred by him in the return filed under Section 77 of the Act. In March 2009, the Supreme Court set aside the Kerala High Court’s judgment declaring void the election of LDF candidate M J Jacob. An RTI application seeking the video tape of of T M Jacob’s speech before the Assembly on July 19, 2005 during a no-confidence motion had created quite an uproar in the state in February 2010.