The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a writ petition which sought to restrain the Election Commission of India (ECI) from approving the recent election of former Chief Ministers O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the coordinator and co-coordinator of the AIADMK.
Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu held that the writ petition was not maintainable and that no direction could be issued to the ECI to interfere with the internal elections of a political party.
J. Jayachandran, a AIADMK member from Arasanatti in Hosur had filed the writ petition. His counsel had contended that when a political party performs public functions and expects the general elections to be held in a democratic way, it was equally important that its own party elections were also held in the same spirit. He complained that the two former Chief Ministers were declared elected unopposed to the top posts in the party on December 6, after preventing any other person from filing nominations. He said the bylaws were tweaked to suit their convenience and a farcial election notification was issued, without even publishing the voters list, and the winners were declared in no time.
The counsel also relied upon a few Supreme Court rulings and also the High Court’s 2007 celebrated verdict in which it had invoked its writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution to order re-elections in 99 wards during the 2006 Chennai corporation polls marred with violence, booth capturing and other electoral malpractices.
