The Madras High Court on Friday rejected a contention that Election Commission of India’s (ECI) order disqualifying a person from becoming an MP or MLA for three years could not be considered as a disqualification against contesting the elections as such and therefore he/she must be allowed to contest the polls without rejecting the nomination papers.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy termed such contention as “fallacious” and refused to accept it. The judges said, conduct of elections lead to considerable expenditure of public money and therefore allowing a disqualified candidate to contest election might result in a futile exercise if such candidate ends up winning the elections.
The observations were made while disposing of a writ petition filed by S.F. Mohammed Gaddafe who had been fielded as Naam Tamilar Katchi candidate in Harbour constituency in Chennai. The petitioner had challenged an order passed by the ECI on July 26, 2018 disqualifying him from being a member of the Parliament or the Legislative Assembly for a period of three years.
The disqualification order had been passed for not having submitted the election expenses account when he contested from Mudukalathur constituency in the 2016 Assembly elections. The petitioner claimed that he came to know of the disqualification very late and therefore he could not take appropriate steps at the earliest to get the disqualification order quashed.
Disapproving of the last-minute attempt made by the petitioner to squeeze into the electoral fray, the judge said the only relief that they could grant him was to make a fresh representation to the ECI within two weeks and directed the latter to consider such representation within four weeks thereafter.
