The Madras High Court on Wednesday declined to stay bypolls in two Tamil Nadu assembly constituencies — Maduranthakam (SC) and Dharapuram (SC) — scheduled for October 6.
During the hearing, the division bench of Justices S M Subramaniam and Krishnanaswamy Govindarajan orally declined the stay the bypolls which was filed by advocate K Suthan, news agency PTI reported.
The bypolls for the two seats were necessitated after the resignation of AIADMK MLAs K Maragatham Kumaravel and P Satyabama from Maduranthakam and Dharapuram seats respectively. They joined the ruling TVK and have been nominated by party founder and chief minister C Joseph Vijay from the same seats.
The bench made oral observations during the hearing, saying that the circumstances around the bypolls should not become “mockery of democracy”.
“The situation is not governed by law as of now. There is a vacuum as to whether the people’s mandate is rightly utilised or understood, or whether an MLA or an MP, who resigns immediately after being elected, can be allowed to contest again…What is the guideline to deal with a situation where the very same MLA who resigned from the post is contesting again in the by-election? It should not be a mockery of democracy. It is nothing but insulting the people,” the bench remarked, LiveLaw reported.
The petitioner sought a direction to the Election Commission of India and state Chief Electoral Officer from accepting the nomination papers of Sathyabama and Kumaravel.
Sutha further called for a direction to the EC to mandate, as a pre-condition for filing nomination papers, the deposit of an “Election Expenditure Security” as fixed by it for each of the respective constituency by the resigned AIADMK members–S Jayakumar (Perunthurai), Maragatham Kumaravel, Sathyabama, Dr Esakki Subbaya (Ambasamudram), C Vijaya Bhaskar (Viralimalai) and M R Vijayabhaskar (Karur), should they seek to contest the ensuing bye-elections for the said constituencies.
The advocate also reportedly sought a direction to the poll body to place before this court a detailed report on the estimated expenditure to be incurred for conducting the elections in the constituencies of Tiruchirappalli East (one of the two seats represented by Vijay and since vacated by him), Karur, Viralimalai, Perundurai, Ambasamudram, Maduranthakam and Dharapuram which have been necessitated by the resignations of the respective MLAs, pending disposal of this petition.
The petitioner also called on the ECI to examine and initiate necessary legislative and/or regulatory measures to create a mechanism for ensuring financial accountability of elected representatives who voluntarily and prematurely resign from their seats without legally recognized compelling circumstances, including by considering the introduction of an “Election Expenditure Security” to recover the cost of the resultant bypolls.
(With inputs from PTI)
