Over to poll commission

Sir, - In your Editorial `Ms. Jayalalitha and the poll' (April 14) you have echoed the general feeling among the public, lay and enlightened, that the Madras High Court judgment, which many believe would throw conclusive light on the issue, has not provided unequivocal opinion. The observations of the judge, however, leaves some elbow room for the Election Commission to take a fresh look at its earlier orders. If the Election Commission is really interested in cleansing the system, it should be guided by the Supreme Court ruling that suspension of conviction should not be granted to those convicted of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The essence of the Madras High Court judgment is that the competent authority to decide the eligibility or otherwise of a person to contest the elections pending appeals against him/her is the Election Commission and not the court.

If corrupt politicians are kept out of the electoral arena it will contribute to cleanse the entire system. In this connection, the observation of Justice K.T. Thomas of the Supreme Court (`The anatomy of corruption', April 14) that the tragedy of our republic was that corrupt politicians encouraged public servants to become corrupt is very appropriate in the backdrop of convictions of top IAS officials in Tamil Nadu which leads to the inference that politicians are responsible for the corrupt scenario.

V.N. Gopal,

Chennai

Sir, - The judgment of the Madras High Court has created confusion as to what the ultimate result of the case is. Whether Ms. Jayalalitha can contest in the election or not is not clear. In 1997, the Election Commission sent directives to the returning officers that a person convicted for more than two years in a criminal case is disqualified and so cannot contest in an election even if the conviction is stayed by the High Court. The commission has neither made any distinction between sentence and conviction nor given any weightage to the stay by the High Court. As we stand, taking into consideration the judgment of the Madras High Court dismissing the prayer to stay the special court conviction and the observation made by the judge that only the Election Commission can decide whether a person is qualified to contest or not, it is very clear that Ms. Jayalalitha cannot contest in the coming Assembly election.

Mathew Moses,

Madurai

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