Chennai, Aug 25:
The Madras High Court has given Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay and Minister Aadhav Arjuna time until August 27 to file petitions seeking dismissal of election petitions challenging their victories, warning that a ₹50,000 fine would be imposed if they fail to meet the deadline.
The election petitions were filed challenging Vijay’s victories in the Perambur and Tiruchy East Assembly constituencies. In the Perambur case, DMK candidate R.D. Sekar and voters Dinesh and Lakshmi Narasimman had approached the High Court questioning Vijay’s election. A separate petition was filed by DMK candidate Inigo Irudayaraj challenging Vijay’s victory in Tiruchy East. The petitions came up for hearing before Justice V. Lakshminarayanan on Monday.
During the hearing, Vijay’s counsel sought two weeks’ time to file an application seeking dismissal of the election petitions. The judge, however, declined to grant the requested extension, pointing out that election petitions have to be disposed of within six months under Section 86 of the Representation of the People Act. The judge also recalled that the court had already indicated during the previous hearing that no further extension would be granted for filing the dismissal applications.
A similar request for additional time was made on behalf of Aadhav Arjuna, who is also facing an election petition. The court declined to grant two weeks but allowed time until August 27 for both sides to file their respective applications seeking dismissal. The court warned that failure to file the petitions within the stipulated deadline would result in a ₹50,000 fine being imposed on Vijay and Aadhav Arjuna.