CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has refused to interfere with an order of the Returning Officer (RO) rejecting the BSP candidate’s nomination papers for the May 16 polls for Thondamuthur Assembly constituency in Coimbatore.
Citing a ruling of the Supreme Court Constitutional Bench, the Vacation Bench of Justices KK Sasidharan and S Vimala dismissed a writ petition from Jayaraj, seeking to quash the order dated April 30, 2016 of the RO-cum-DRO, rejecting his nomination papers.
The SC judgment stated that the “court must be very circumspect and act with caution while entertaining any election dispute though not hit by the bar of Article 329(b) (of the Constitution) but brought to it during the pendency of election proceedings. The court must guard against any attempt at retarding, interrupting, protracting or stalling of the election proceedings. Care has to be taken to see that there is no attempt to utilise the court’s indulgence by filing a petition outwardly inocuous but essentially a subterfuge or pretext for achieving an ulterior or hidden end. Needless to say that in the very nature of the things the court would act with reluctance and shall not act, except on a clear and strong case for its intervention having been made out by raising the pleas with particulars and precision and supporting the same by necessary material.”
The Bench said the “In view of the categorical pronouncements made by the Constitutional Bench of the SC, interpreting Article 329 of the Constitution, we are not in a position to entertain the Writ Petition,” the bench added and dismissed the petition.