The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside a Kerala High Court order that suspended the conviction of Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal in an attempt to murder case, PTI reported.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, however, said that Faizal will continue to have protection from any possibility of disqualification as an MP.

A Lakshadweep sessions court convicted Faizal and four others on January 11 for attempting to murder Padanath Salih, the son-in-law of former Union Minister and Congress leader PM Sayeed, during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. They were awarded a jail sentence of 10 years. Faizal was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha after his conviction.

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The Nationalist Congress Party leader had challenged the verdict in the Kerala High Court, which suspended his conviction and sentence on January 25.

The High Court had remarked that Faizal’s disqualification would lead to a bye-election in his constituency, which will impose a financial burden on the government and the public. It had also said that the new election process would lead to various development activities in Lakshadweep coming to a halt for a few weeks. His Lok Sabha membership was reinstated on March 29.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court disagreed with the Kerala High Court’s reason behind suspending Faizal’s sentence.

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The bench said that the High Court should have examined the gravity of the offence for which Faizal was convicted. It directed the High Court to reconsider its decision within six weeks, according to Bar and Bench.

“The High Court has considered only one aspect of the matter that the first respondent was an MP and any conviction would cause a fresh election to be conducted for Lakshadweep, which would result in enormous expenses,” the judges said. “The said aspect could not have been the only aspect considered. We thus disagree with the decision and set it aside, and remand it for reconsideration.”