CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday reserved orders on the public interest litigation petition filed by advocate K Venkatachalapathy seeking to restrain the Election Commission of India from holding the bye-elections to five Assembly constituencies until the election petitions challenging the victory of the winners are decided by the court.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan reserved the orders after the completion of arguments by the respective counsels.
The court had already granted interim injunction against holding the bye-elections to Perundurai, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai and Karur. Tiruchy East.
Among the five constituencies, the election petition regarding Perundurai constituency was decided by the court recently and if the Supreme Court, on appeal, does not stay the HC’s order, the bye-election can be held in this Assembly segment. During the arguments, ECI had stated that deferring of the bypolls was not permanent and the bypolls would be held as soon as the legal hurdle — election petition — is cleared.
