EC says it can't declare RK Nagar bypoll date due to pendency

The Election Commission today informed the Madras High Court that it was not in a position to declare the schedule for the by-election to RK Nagar Assembly constituency here in view of pendency of two petitions related to the matter.
The EC's counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan made the submission during a mention before the first bench headed by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee which said it would take up the matter tomorrow.
The bench had in its September 18 order directed the EC to conduct the by-election for the seat, lying vacant following the death of the Tamil Nadu chief minister the late J Jayalalithaa, preferably by December 31.

The order was passed on a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by a man named K K Ramesh.
The EC counsel said, in the mean time, two petitions-- one by the DMK's Organising Secretary R S Bharathi and another by a candidate--were filed. The by-election, which was earlier scheduled for April 12, was cancelled amid allegation of bribery of voters.
Bharathi has sought a direction to the Commission to declare the election date only after verification of electoral rolls to weed out bogus voters.
The candidate in the cancelled bypoll wanted the conduct of the election only after action was taken against people who were involved in electoral malpractices which led to the bypoll getting countermanded.

The Commission submitted that unless these two petitions were decided it cannot announce the bypoll.