Chennai: Palayamkottai-based lawyer Venkatajalapathi had filed a case in the Madras High Court seeking a ban on by-elections in the five constituencies of Tiruchi East, Perundurai, Karur, Viralimalai, and Ambasamuthiram, where election petitions are pending.
After hearing the case, the High Court on July 10 issued an interim stay order stating that by-elections should not be held in all five constituencies.
Thereafter, it was argued on behalf of Chief Minister Vijay and Karur M.R. Vijaya Bhaskar, Viralimalai C. Vijayabhaskar, and Ambasamudram Isakki Subbiah that postponing the by-election by citing the pending election case in these constituencies was against the public interest, and therefore the ban imposed on the by-election should be lifted.
This case came up for hearing again yesterday before a bench comprising Chief Justice S.A. Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arulmurugan. At that time, the written submission filed on behalf of the Election Commission stated as follows: Postponing the announcement of a by-election is not permanent.
By-elections will be held for those constituencies as soon as the election case pending in the High Court comes to an end.
As far as the other four constituencies, including Tiruchi East, are concerned, Section 151(A) of the Representation of the People Act does not say that an election must be held on the very first day the constituency is declared vacant.
There is a six-month period to conduct the election. If a candidate who contested the election files an election petition seeking to be declared the winner, and that case is pending, the constituency cannot be considered vacant.
The law, which says election cases must be heard and concluded within six months, has also set a deadline requiring by-elections to be held within the same six-month period.
If the court speeds up the hearing so that election cases are concluded quickly enough to hold the by-election within this period, the Election Commission also welcomes it.
After the election cases are resolved, the Election Commission will decide on holding elections for the other four constituencies except Perundurai.
Therefore, it was stated that the request made by Chief Minister Vijay and the concerned former MLAs to hold by-elections in these constituencies without taking the election petition into account should be rejected, and that orders should be issued to expedite and conclude the election petitions. Following this, the judges adjourned the hearing to today (Sept. 30).
The ban on the Perundurai constituency has been lifted
In the Election Commission’s response affidavit, it was stated that, “Since the election petition filed challenging the victory of Jayakumar, who was elected from the Perundurai constituency, was dismissed on Sept. 8, the ban on holding a by-election in that constituency has been lifted.
Since the Perundurai constituency is currently vacant, the time to appeal against the dismissal of the election petition is open until Nov. 24. Therefore, with regard to that constituency, the Election Commission should be allowed to take a decision in accordance with the law,’ it said.
