Centre defers to ECI on Tamil Nadu byelections for five vacant seats
The Centre told the Madras High Court it will let the ECI decide on byelections to five vacant Tamil Nadu constituencies, as arguments continued on a plea to defer the polls.
The Union government has told the Madras High Court that it will leave the question of conducting byelections to five vacant Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu to the Election Commission of India. The submission was made on Tuesday before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan.
Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan told the court that he had received a two-page note from the Union Ministry of Law and Justice directing that the matter be left to the poll panel to argue. The five constituencies awaiting bypolls are Tiruchi East, Perundurai, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai and Karur.
The case arises from a public interest litigation petition filed by K. Venkatachalapathy of Tirunelveli, seeking to restrain the authorities from holding the bypolls until election petitions linked to the seats are disposed of. Advocate General Vijay Narayan, appearing for the Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, said he could not take sides and had nothing to argue on the petition.
Senior counsel G. Masilamani, representing Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, contended that the Election Commission must revisit its decision not to hold the bypolls for the five seats before the election petitions are decided. Vijay won from two constituencies in this year's general election and resigned from Tiruchi East while retaining Perambur.
Masilamani argued that the possibility of an election petitioner or another candidate being declared the returned candidate would arise only in a two-candidate contest, and not in a multi-cornered fight. He said all 234 Assembly constituencies in the state saw multi-cornered contests this year, and therefore there was no prospect of a constituency ending up with two representatives if a byelection were held before an election petition was decided. He also questioned the petitioner's locus standi and noted that none of the election petitioners had approached the court seeking to stall the bypolls.
Senior counsel Satish Parasaran and Gopal Sankaranarayanan made submissions on behalf of resigned MLAs Esakki Subaya and M.R. Vijayabhaskar. The Bench adjourned the matter to Wednesday, when senior counsel Dama Seshadri Naidu, assisted by Niranjan Rajagopalan, is expected to argue for the Election Commission.