CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has rejected a plea for declaring the elections held in the Coimbatore municipal corporation in 2022 on the ground that the court cannot call into question an election based on a writ petition.
Disposing of a writ petition filed by V Eswaran of Marumalarchi Makkal Iyakkam, the first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu noted that ‘Article 243 ZG of the Constitution provides that no election to any municipality shall be called into question except by an election petition presented to such authority and in such manner as is provided for by or under any law made by the Legislature of the state.’
“In view of the constitutional bar engrafted under Article 243 ZG, it would not be possible to accede to the request of the petitioner that the entire elections be set aside in the present writ petition,” the bench said in a recent order.
The bench noted that if some cash is found that itself would not indicate that each and every candidate involved in corrupt practices.Eswaran filed the petition last year seeking orders to appoint a sitting judge of the High Court to probe the incidents of rampant bribing of votes in all the 100 wards in the corporation and nullify the polls.