States » SouthPosted at: Oct 2 2026 4:51PM


Madras HC clears decks for holding bypolls for 2 of the 5 seats

Chennai, Oct 2 (UNI) The Madras High Court has cleared the decks for the conduct of Assembly bypoll to two more seats - Perundurai and Ambasamudram -- following which the Election Commission of India (ECI) expressed its intent to hold the polls if the court excluded the two seats from the five to which it has barred holding bypolls and if there was no stay by the Supreme Court.
After rejecting an election petition in respect of Perundurai constituency about three weeks back, the High Court rejected a plea to declare the runner-up in the Ambasamudram seat as the returned candidate and observing that the only option available was to hold fresh elections.
It may be noted that the First Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan had on July 10 barred the ECI from notifying bypolls to five seats -- Tiruchi East, Perundurai, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai, and Karur on a PIL filed by K.Venkatachalapathy of Tirunelveli due to filing of election-related pleas.
In its counter affidavit, the poll body submitted that it would not conduct bypolls to the five constituencies till the pending election pleas are finally disposed off.
However, after the filing of the counter-affidavit, Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy had on September 8 rejected the election petition against the victory of S.Jayakumar, who had won from Perundurai as an AIADMK candidate but resigned later and joined the ruling TVK.
In its written submissions on Thursday ahead of its final arguments, the ECI urged the First Bench to exempt Perundurai alone from its interim stay order. It also said a byelection could be conducted to the seat if the Supreme Court does not grant any stay, and if the Court excludes it from the constituencies where bypolls had been stalled.
Meanwhile, on Friday, when the ECI was presenting its final arguments before the First Bench, Mr Justice P.B. Balaji refused to reject an election petition filed by a voter challenging the victory of Esakki Subbiah from the Ambasamudram seat, but struck off the relief sought by the petitioner to declare the runner-up, V.P. Durai of the Congress, as the winner.
While dismissing an application filed by Subbiah--who had won as an AIADMK candidate, but later resigned from his post and joined the TVK--to reject the election petition preferred by S.Kanthimathinathan, the Judge, however, allowed another application filed by Subbiah to strike off the relief sought by the election petitioner under Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, seeking to declare Durai s the returned candidate.
The judge agreed with senior counsel Satish Parasaran, appearing for Subbiah that when there were more than two candidates who had contested in an election, the runner-up could not automatically be declared as the elected candidate by allowing the election plea and that the only course of action available would be to order fresh elections. "In the present case, I am conscious of the fact that despite being the returned candidate, the first respondent (Subbiah) has resigned from his MLA post and the electorate remains unrepresented as on date.
But, for the prayer sought for invoking Section 84 of the RPA, read with Section 101 of RPA, the ECI would be clearly well within its right to conduct a fresh election," Justice Balaji said.
The judge, however, said the election petition that had challenged the victory of Subbiah for having allegedly indulged in electoral corrupt practices must go to trial.
Justice Balaji's order striking off the relief sought under Section 84 of the RP A assumes significance in light of the fact that Ambasamudram was one of the five seats where byelections had been barred by the First Bench of the High Court, on the ground that conduct of bypolls pending the plea under Section 84 might end up in an anomalous situation of those constituencies being represented by two individuals.
Earlier, on September 8 the poll petition filed by losing DMK nominee Thoppu N.Venkatachalam (a former AIADMK Minister), who had since quit the DMK a few days back, challenging the victory of AIADMK's S.Jayakumar from Perundurai was dismissed by the court.
Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the order, while observing that the petition filed by runner-up DMK candidate Thoppu Venkatachalam (who has since quit the party) failed to establish or disclose any legally permissible cause of action for challenging the election. The Judge accepted Jayakumar's application to dismiss the case, stating the allegations of corrupt practices lacked standard
legal footing. The dismissal of the poll plea has cleared the primary legal roadblock for the ECI to conduct a bye-election in Perundurai.
During one of the hearings in the main case, Jayakumar made a mention about the court order clearing the decks and prayed the First Bench to vacate the stay for holding bypoll to Perundurai. The Bench said it would take a decision on receipt of the court order and studying it.
If Ambasamudram was added to Peundurai, it meant that the court has cleared the decks for holding bypolls to the two of the five seats.
During the hearing Chief Minister Vijay, drew the attention of the First Bench the order issued by Justice Balaji and said the EC would now have to conduct bypolls to both Perundurai and Ambasamudram. After hearing all arguments, the Bench reserved its orders in the plea seeking a stay to hold bypolls to the five seats.
A total of seven seats fell vacant, six due to quitting of AIADMK MLAs, who later joined the TVK, and one due to resignation of Vijay from Tiruchy East after he chose to retain Perambur, one of the two seats he had won. The ECI has since ordered bypoll to two seats -- Madurantakam and Dharapuram -- and the polling would be held on October six.
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