Centre leaves Tamil Nadu bypoll decision to Election Commission

The Union government has told the Madras High Court that the Election Commission of India should decide whether byelections are held in five vacant Tamil Nadu Assembly constituencies. Additional Solicitor General A.R.L. Sundaresan conveyed the position on Tuesday before a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari.

He said the Union Ministry of Law and Justice had instructed him to leave the matter to the Election Commission. The constituencies are Tiruchi East, Perundurai, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai and Karur. The issue arose in a public-interest litigation filed by K.

Venkatachalapathy of Tirunelveli, who sought to prevent the byelections until related election petitions were disposed of. The Advocate General, Vijay Narayan, representing the Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretary, said he could not take sides and therefore had nothing to argue on the petition. The court was also told that the Election Commission had decided not to conduct the byelections until the election petitions were resolved.

Senior counsel G. Masilamani, appearing for Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, argued that the Commission should reconsider that position.

He said the Chief Minister had won from two constituencies, later retaining Perambur and resigning from Tiruchi East. Masilamani contended that concerns about a constituency having two representatives would arise only where two candidates had contested an election and one was later declared elected through an election petition. He said all 234 constituencies had seen multi-cornered contests in the latest Assembly election, making that outcome impossible in the seats under discussion.

He also questioned the petitioner’s standing and said none of the election petitioners had approached the court to oppose the byelections. Senior counsel Satish Parasaran and Gopal Sankaranarayanan made submissions for resigned legislators Esakki Subaya and M.R. Vijayabhaskar.

The judges adjourned the case until Wednesday, when senior counsel Dama Seshadri Naidu, assisted by Niranjan Rajagopalan, is due to present arguments for the Election Commission. No decision on the timing of the byelections had been reported in the supplied material.