DMK candidate's plea will not stop EC from announcing RK Nagar bypoll date

Chennai: The Madras High Court has made it clear that the pendency of the petition filed by DMK's RK Nagar by-election candidate N. Maruthu Ganesh will not prevent the Election Commission of India from announcing the election date and/or for conducting the elections in the RK Nagar constituency.

The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M. Sundar also recorded the submission of senior counsel P. Wilson appearing for the petitioner that the petitioner is not pressing for the prayer for a direction to the ECI to forbear from notifying the by-election for the constituency without taking penal action against the persons named in the Income Tax report dated April 8, 2017, which was the basis for the ECI to rescind the election to the constituency. Posting to December 11, further hearing of the case.

In his petition, Maruthu Ganesh, also sought a compensation of '5 lakh, which he spent during the cancelled by-election from the ECI and recover the same from persons by whose illegal activities the by-election was rescinded.

When the petition came up for hearing on Tuesday, senior counsel P. Wilson submitted that when the ECI had stopped the election after spending Rs 10 crore based on the letter of the IT department, which named some persons who indulged in bribing the voters, why the ECI has not taken any action. The complaint given by the Returning Officers did not name the offenders, though their names were mentioned in the IT report.

The two ROs were colluding with the offenders. For the namesake, the complaint was given. The ECI failed to take action until today, but wants to conduct the election. Then how there will be a fair election. This court has directed them to conduct the election by December 31. The same thing will happen.”History will repeat and they will stop election”, Wilson added.

Niranjan Rajagopal appearing for ECI submitted that ECI was an independent body. The very prayer to ask the Union government to frame guidelines to be followed by the ECI was against the Constitution. This prayer should be rejected. So far as the investigation was concerned, there was a petition relating to the same issue and it was pending.

There was no representation with regard to the integrity of the two ROs when personal allegations were made against them by the petitioner, he added.