CHENNAI: TERMING as vexatious, Madras High Court has thrown out a writ petition, which sought the Election Commission to reject the nomination papers of the DMK and AIADMK candidates, who had allegedly involved in cash distribution to voters earlier.
To discourage persons from filing any such vexatious petitions, the first bench of Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan also imposed a cost of `3,000 on AP Geetha of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi, who is contesting from Aravakurichi, one of the constituencies going to the polls on November 19.
According to Geetha, the EC had earlier annulled the election to Aravakurichi due to large-scale electoral malpractices by DMK candidate KC Palanisamy and AIADMK candidate V Senthil Balaji. The EC ought to have rejected their nominations this time, she contended.
The bench noted that the issue of acceptance of the nomination papers of the duo and to cancel the allotment of the party symbols to them, has been raised again and again in different proceedings and the court has already answered this question. Yet, this issue continues to be raised before this court by different parties including the one by the present petitioner, a candidate, one day before the election. “We find, thus, such a repeated endeavour is a complete wastage of judicial time and consider it as a fit case where not only the petition should be dismissed but also costs should also be imposed on the petitioner," the bench said.