Chennai, Dec 7 (PTI) The Madras High Court today refusedto dismiss a petition challenging the election of AIADMKcandidate and Tamil Nadu minister S Saroja from Rasipuramconstituency in the 2016 assembly elections.
Justice V Bharathidasan dismissed a miscellaneouspetition by Social Welfare Minister Saroja, seeking to quashthe election petition filed by losing DMK candidate V PDuraiswamy.
The DMK leader challenged the election of Saroja,alleging she indulged in corrupt practices.
He, however, partly allowed her plea and set asideportions of the pleadings (paras 11, 14, 15 and 17) inDuraiswamy's petition holding that they were vague andcontained only general allegations, bereft of full particularsregarding alleged corrupt practices.
After going through the pleadings, which Saroja wanted tobe deleted, the judge said, except the four paragraphs, theothers contained material facts regarding corrupt practiceallegedly committed by her.
They also pointed out lapses allegedly committed by theElection Commission in rectifying the electoral roll and alsothe 'failure' on its part to strictly enforce the model codeof conduct to ensure a free and fair election, he said.
"These averments, in the considered opinion of thiscourt, constitute a complete cause of action for trial and inthe above circumstance, the election petition does not deservea rejection at its threshold," the judge said. PTI COR VSKJ.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.