The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the operation of First Information Reports (FIRs) registered against former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, now an MLA representing Bodinayakanur, and his son P. Ravindranath, MP from Theni, for allegedly furnishing false information regarding their assets and income in the election affidavits filed in 2021 and 2019 respectively.
Justice M. Nirmal Kumar ordered that the interim stay shall be in operation until the disposal of petitions filed by the father-son duo to quash the two FIRs. Though the judge was inclined to take up the quash petitions for final hearing and dispose them of, the counsel for the complainant, P. Milany of the DMK, urged the court to grant him time to produce certain Supreme Court judgments.
Hence, the judge adjourned the main quash petitions and ordered that there shall be an interim stay till the disposal. In their quash petitions, the litigants belonging to the AIADMK, stated that the complainant was a member of their rival party, but he had suppressed the fact while lodging the complaint before a Judicial Magistrate designated as a special court for cases against legislators in Theni.
The Magistrate too, without ascertaining the veracity of the complaint, had forwarded it to the District Crime Branch and the latter registered the two FIRs for the offence under Section 125A of the Representation of the People Act of 1951. The litigants argued that the complaint was not maintainable at all since the complainant had already filed election petitions against them before the High Court on same grounds.
