NEW DELHI: A Delhi High Court judge on Monday recused from hearing a plea moved by AIADMK interim general secretary K. Palaniswami seeking directions for updating the party’s amended bylaws with the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The petitioner pointed out the delay in the update was coming in way of the party contesting the Karnataka assembly elections. The party also quoted ECI, saying the party records are not being updated owing to certain internal disputes.
The plea claimed it is wholly contrary to the various settled legal principles and the earlier stand of the ECI taken in relation to the party. Without citing any reason for recusing from the matter, Justice Prathiba M Singh said it should be listed before another bench on April 12, subject to orders of the chief justice.
‘The inaction of ECI has grossly violated the Article 19(1)(c) of the petitioners as petitioner no 1 (AIADMK) is an association of persons and owing to the inaction of ECI, the petitioner no 1 is not able to effectively carry out its functions which is the dire need of the hour especially owing to the fast approaching elections,” the plea read.
‘The inaction of ECI to upload its records will lead to a situation where the AIADMK will not be able to put up a candidate or carry out any other administrative function and the same would result in stagnancy of effective functioning of the AIADMK party,” the plea said.