Chennai: Kancheepuram district collector on Sunday placed under suspension the Chengalpet municipal engineer R. Ganesan, who is also acting as municipal commissioner, following rejecting the nomination papers of two independent candidates in the recent by-elections in the municipality. Earlier, the state election commission S. Ayyar had recommended to the collector to take action against Mr Ganesan after the Madras high court came down heavily against him for rejecting the nomination papers of independents Thanigavel for ward six and Bazullah for ward one.
Mr Ganesan, who was the Returning Officer for the by-elections in his capacity as the acting commissioner of Chengalpet municipality, had rejected the nomination papers of the two independents holding that they had not paid their income tax. The two men thereafter moved the Madras high court seeking remedy pleading that they had no taxable income and so there was no question of their having to pay IT. Meanwhile, Mr Ganesan had declared the AIADMK candidates in the two wards as elected unopposed. The court held that his rejection of the two independents’ papers was improper and that fresh elections should be held in the two wards.
