CHENNAI: Holding that the court is not concerned with the calibre of candidates contesting in an election and it is for electors to exercise their choice, the First Bench of the Madras High Court has dismissed a PIL praying for a directive to the Election Commission to suspend the result declared on December 27 in the by-election conducted for RK Nagar Assembly constituency.
The Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose made the observation, while dismissing the PIL from advocate S Ramaswamy on Tuesday.
Besides seeking to suspend the result, petitioner also sought to restrain the successful candidate T T V Dhinakaran from proceeding further to discharge the legal obligations by him as an MLA.
The Bench said the petitioner has stated that the people in general have grievances against the result of the by-election conducted in respect of RK Nagar constituency. Referring to Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, he had stated that offering of bribe to secure votes was a corrupt practice.
The petitioner also said in all, 59 nomination papers were accepted. Dhinakaran was an independent candidate. The real contest was between party candidates and Dhinakaran.
It was alleged that Dhinakaran was allegedly involved in foreign exchange cases and also in cases pertaining to offering bribe of `60 crore to middlemen of Election Commission to get the Two Leaves symbol for contesting the RK Nagar by-election.
But the fact remained that he did not get the aforesaid election symbol, the Bench said. “This court is not concerned with the calibre of the respective candidates, who contest an election. It is for the electors to exercise their choice,” the Bench said.
Citing Article 329 (b) of the Constitution (bar on interference by courts in electoral matters), Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act and various judgments of the Supreme Court, the Bench further said that in this case, the elections had already been conducted, counting completed and the results declared. The interference of this court under Article 226 of the Constitution does not arise, the Bench added and dismissed the petition.