Chennai, Aug 28:
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay has moved the Madras High Court seeking removal of the stay on announcing by-elections to five vacant Assembly constituencies, including Tiruchy East.
The petition was filed in response to a PIL by Venkatajalapathi of Palayamkottai, who had sought a ban on announcing bypolls to Tiruchy East, Karur, Viralimalai, Perundurai and Ambasamudram, citing pending election petitions concerning the constituencies.
The Chief Justice-led bench had earlier restrained the Election Commission from announcing the bypolls. The poll panel had also informed the court that elections would not be announced until the related election cases were disposed of.
In his counter, Vijay contended that the election petition challenging the Tiruchy East result was filed only on June 17, whereas he had resigned as the constituency’s MLA on May 10, and the resignation was accepted by the Speaker when no election petition was pending.
He argued that an election petition cannot be maintained against a constituency that has already fallen vacant. The petitioner seeking to prevent the bypoll, he said, was neither the person who had filed the election petition nor a voter from the constituency.
Vijay further claimed that the PIL had been filed without a legal basis with the intention of preventing the Tiruchy East by-election. Since the election process had been stalled, lakhs of voters in the constituency were being left without an elected MLA, which, he argued, was against public interest.
The counter also stated that a PIL could not be filed on behalf of persons who had challenged the election victories of MLAs in the five constituencies.
Referring specifically to Tiruchy East, Vijay said 20 candidates had contested the election and the person who filed the election petition could not simply be declared the winner. The Election Commission was therefore required to conduct a bypoll to the vacant seat under the Representation of the People Act, he submitted.
Pointing out that the five constituencies had witnessed multi-cornered contests and were not cases involving only two candidates, Vijay sought lifting of the stay in the larger public interest.
He also urged the court to dismiss the PIL with costs, paving the way for the Election Commission to announce the bypolls to the five constituencies.