The Madras High Court on Monday asked an independent candidate contesting from Tiruchuli Assembly constituency to approach the Election Commission of India (ECI) with his complaint that DMK candidate and former Minister Thangam Thennarasu had allegedly distributed free gifts and silver wares with stickers containing his photo and name to a section of voters in the constituency.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said the ECI was the appropriate authority to deal with complaints of corruption and malpractices in the electoral process. Since the petitioner M. Thirupathy had wrongly included the State Election Commissioner as a respondent to the case, the judges suo motu included the ECI as a respondent and said it was the sole authority to deal with the issue.
