Stay Madurantakam and Dharapuram byelections, urges plea at Madras High Court

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Aerial view of Madras High Court at Chennai. File | Photo Credit: V. Ganesan

A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court to restrain Election Commission of India (ECI) from conducting byelections in Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu until the disposal of the case which primarily seeks to prevent the practice of MLAs resigning the post only to seek re-election from the same constituencies after joining other political parties.

The case is expected to be listed for hearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan next week. Chennai-based advocate K. Suthan had filed the petition seeking introduction of stringent rules so that public money is not wasted because of legislators who resign and seek re-election just to escape proceedings under the anti-defection law.

The petitioner sought a direction to the ECI to initiate necessary legislative/regulatory measures such as collection of ‘election expenditure security deposit’ in order to recover the cost of the bypolls from the resigned legislators who seek re-election. He also sought a direction to the ECI to introduce a statutory disqualification or cooling off period to prevent resigned MLAs from seeking re-election immediately.

In his affidavit, the litigant pointed out that as many as six individuals C. Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai), M.R. Vijayabhaskar (Karur), Esakki Subaya (Ambasamudram), P. Sathyabama (Dharapuram), K. Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam) and S. Jayakumar (Perundurai) had won the Assembly elections this year as AIADMK candidates but subsequently resigned their MLA post before joining the ruling TVK.

The ECI had decided not to conduct bypolls for four out of those six constituencies because of pending election petitions with respect to those four constituencies. It, however, notified the bypolls for the rest of the two constituencies (Madurantakam and Dharapuram). Since Ms. Kumaravel and Ms. Sathyabama have been announced as TVK candidates for those constituencies, the petitioner urged the court to stay the two bypolls.

“Where an elected representative voluntarily resigns shortly after election purely for personal or political reasons, without any legally recognised compelling circumstance, the competent authority should consider a statutory restriction preventing such person from contesting an election to the Parliament or any State Legislative Assembly for a period of five years from the date of acceptance of resignation,” the affidavit read.

The petitioner went on to state: “The electorate’s mandate cannot be treated merely as a personal political asset capable of being abandoned immediately after election without consideration of the consequences to the electorate and public exchequer. There is presently no adequate statutory mechanism connecting a voluntary premature resignation with the additional public expenditure caused by the resulting vacancy.”

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