CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madras High Court, which heard the preliminary arguments on the plea from AIADMK alliance candidate A C Shanmugham for Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, reserved its orders for 4.30 p.m. today.
In his PIL, Shanmugham had challenged the constitutional validity of the orders dated April 16 of the President of India rescinding the election to the Vellore constituency scheduled to take place on Thursday (April 18) on charges of rampant corruption.
Earlier, petitioner's senior counsel told the bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad that for corrupt practices of a particular candidate of a particular political party, the entire election process cannot be rescinded. That candidate alone should be disqualified, he said.
Once the election process was notified by the Election Commission of India, the President of India has no power to cancel it. The cancellation notification issued under Sec 14 of the Representation of the People Act read with Sec. 21 of the General Clauses Act contravened the constitutional mandate conferred on the ECI, he added.
"Do you mean to say that the ECI should allow people to get corrupted and then take action," the judges asked the senior counsel. In this connection, they pointed out there was no provision in the RP Act to disqualify a candidate at the contesting stage itself.