CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday ordered the Election Commission (EC) to hold election to the RK Nagar Assembly constituency at the earliest, preferably before December 31. The seat fell vacant following the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.The bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar gave the directive when a PIL from K K Ramesh came up for further hearing.
The petition prayed for a directive to the Chief Election Commissioner to conduct the bypoll at the earliest.
As per the Representation of the People Act, if any legislator dies, the by-election should be conducted within six months, yet the date of polls had not been announced for the RK Nagar constituency till now, the petitioner pointed out. In this connection, he sent a representation on July 3 last, but there was no response from the EC, hence the PIL.
“It is expected that the Election Commission of India would announce the election date at the earliest and conduct the election, preferably by December 31, 2017,” the bench said.
The by-election, originally scheduled for April 12, was countermanded by the EC following allegation of bribery to the voters on a large-scale.