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Wednesday, Sep 08, 2010
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SC upholds MLA's election from reserved constituency

J. Venkatesan

A petition had questioned her claim that she belonged to SC community

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside a judgment of the Madras High Court quashing the election of M. Chandra of the AIADMK from the Rajapalayam (Reserved) constituency in the 2006 Assembly elections.

A Bench of Justice D.K. Jain and Justice H.L. Dattu allowed Ms. Chandra's appeal against the High Court judgment dated December 2, 2008. The Supreme Court had earlier stayed the judgment and said Ms. Chandra could participate in the Assembly proceedings but could not vote. She would not be entitled to salary and emoluments during the pendency of the appeal.

The High Court had set aside her election on a petition filed by M. Thangamuthu, one of the candidates, alleging that Ms. Chandra contested under the AIADMK symbol by falsely representing that she belonged to the Scheduled Caste community, suppressing the fact that her original name was Glory Chandra and she was born to Christian parents, Navakumar and Santhosapackiam.

The High Court had held that she had not produced any acceptable evidence to show that she had converted to Hinduism and was accepted by the Hindu Pallan community.

Furthermore, she had not established that she was professing faith in Hinduism.

Ms. Chandra in her appeal contended that she belonged to the Scheduled Caste (Pallan) community and was recognised by the community members. She denied the allegation that she had filed a false declaration.

Ms. Chandra said the High Court judgment was erroneous as it had failed to consider the fact no objection was raised at the time of filing of nomination to contest from the reserved constituency. She sought quashing of the impugned judgment.

The Supreme Court Bench accepted her contentions and upheld her election.

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