Tamil Nadu - Others   

State Election Commission moves Supreme Court

J. Venkatesan

Against judgment on civic polls Special leave petition against Madras High Court judgment on Chennai civic polls

NEW DELHI: The State Election Commission, Tamil Nadu, on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging two judgments of the Madras High Court on the elections to the Chennai Corporation in October.

On writ petitions filed by the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and others, a Bench of two judges gave different findings. While Justice F.M. Ibrahim Khalifullah came to the prima facie conclusion that there was violence in the polls and ordered re-poll in 98 wards, Justice Mukopadyaya held that the petition was not maintainable. So, the matter was referred to Justice P.K Misra who, in his February 16 judgment, agreed with the findings of Justice Khalifullah.

Assailing both the judgments, the EC, through its Commissioner, D. Chandrasekaran, in its special leave petition said the High Court had erred in entertaining the writ petitions. The High Court had failed to note that the Supreme Court had taken a consistent view that elections to Parliament, legislature or local bodies could not be called in question except through an election petition.

"No precedent"

It said there was no precedent for wholesale declaration of invalidating an election based on presumptions made on the strength of newspaper reports and affidavits. The High Court had erred in extrapolating information of doubtful evidentiary value and coming to conclusions about the validity of an election through surmises without any individual consideration of the validity constituency-wise.

Erroneous strictures

It said the High Court had erred in passing severe strictures against a constitutional functionary, the Election Commissioner, when the facts and circumstances as prevailing before the court did not warrant such findings. It contended that the High Court ought to have kept in mind that the complaints were given by political rivals; hence, they could not be the basis for an extraordinary conclusion that election in all 155 wards were vitiated. It must also be noted that none of the candidates was impleaded as a party.

It said the Election Commissioner had performed his duties within the parameters of law and ordered re-poll in 44 booths on the basis of reports from the Returning Officers. He had forwarded the complaints to the police for action to ensure a free and fair poll. The petition sought a direction to set aside the two judgments and an interim stay of the findings.

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