The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered notice to Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin on an election petition filed by a voter from the constituency.
Pending cases
The petitioner had challenged his victory on the ground that he had allegedly made false statements regarding the criminal cases pending against him while filing nomination on March 15.
Justice V. Bharathidasan ordered notices to the Election Commission of India, the Chief Electoral Officer and the Returning Officer too on the election petition preferred by R. Premalatha of Chintadripet. The judge permitted her counsel K. Sakthivel to also take private notices to all the respondents so that they could promptly enter appearance for the next hearing on January 3.
According to the petitioner, the MLA had disclosed 22 criminal cases were pending against him before various police stations in the State.
However, while mentioning the gist of the cases, he had made an assertion that all cases had been booked against him for the charge of having violated the law during protests conducted for public causes.
False assertions
Claiming such an assertion was false, the petitioner contended it was intended to mislead the voters.
She argued such deliberate and intentional filing of a “false affidavit” had materially affected the outcome of the election, and therefore, the court must declare his election as null and void after ruling that the acceptance of his nomination form was not in accordance with law.
