
CHENNAI: The Election Commission of India has told the Madras High Court that it is competent to determine questions of its own jurisdiction whenever required, as it is inherently vested with legislative and judicial powers apart from executive powers.
Further, questions of jurisdiction, locus standi of the representing persons, question as to whether they continue to be in the party etc. when raised, can be determined by the commission while deciding any representation, and there is no bar in any law, it added.
The submission was made in a counter-affidavit before a division bench of justices R Subramanian and C Kumarappan in the case filed by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami seeking to restrain ECI from doing quasi-judicial adjudication on the representations submitted by certain people, including former MPs P Ravindranath and KC Palanisamy, who sought the poll body not to acknowledge the amendments made in the party’s bylaws and the consequent election of him as the general secretary. EPS had also contended that they were not members of the party. The court had temporarily restrained the ECI from proceeding with the proceedings on the matter.
ECI, in the counter-affidavit, informed that it has accepted the communication sent by the party on April 20, 2023, on the amendments made in the bylaws and the change in office-bearers and such communication was taken on record subject to the outcome of any court orders or directions in the civil cases pending on the disputes in the party.
In order to avoid multiple proceedings and provide opportunity to other people whose representations were also on record, ECI decided to dispose of all the representations at one go and issued the notices of hearing. “The mere hearing of a person before disposing of his representation, does not qualify as adjudication of a dispute,” it said.
It said notices were issued to the concerned persons based on the representations received from them between April 20, 2023, and December 4, 2024, on the issue of acknowledging the amendments to the bylaws and change in office-bearers.