Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the chief election commissioner, local body election commission of Tamil Nadu, to dispose of a representation made against a ward councillor, N. Bhaskaran, which alleged suppressing of facts at the time of filing his nomination papers during the ward election. In the petition, S. Parthiban of Saidapet said Bhaskaran was working as a junior assistant in the Bharat Scouts and Guides office at Chennai. Later, he was dismissed from service for misappropriation of funds from the office.
Bhaskaran also obtained a loan of Rs50,000 from a government undertaking employees cooperative society, in Triplicane, and has not repaid the loan till date. The cooperative society initiated action against him. Suppressing all the facts, he contested in the election to ward No. 140 and won as the AIADMK candidate in 2011.
Bhaskaran’s election to Chennai corporation violated the provisions of sections 54-B and 54-C of the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919. Hence, his selection as member of the council must be declared as invalid, he said. Parthiban sent representations to authorities including the chief election commissioner of local body elections and Chennai collector. As there was no response, he filed the present petition.
Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, before whom the petition came up for hearing, said “Without going into the merits of the representation, this court directs the chief election commissioner to dispose of the petitioner’s representation dated March 17, 2015, in accordance with law not later than eight weeks and also communicate the decision to the petitioner as well as the person against whom the representation is made.”
