Election petition against Kanimozhi: HC allows substitution plea

The Madras High Court on Wednesday allowed a voter from the Thoothukudi seat to substitute as the petitioner in a plea against the election of DMK's Kanimozhi, which was withdrawn by losing candidate Tamilisai Soundararajan after she became Telangana governor.

Justice S M Subramaniam, who allowed the substitution petition by A Muthuramalingam, in his order said, "This court is of the considered opinion that the provision unambiguously stipulates that any elector shall be entitled to be substituted.

"The language employed in section 110(3)(c) of the Representation of Peoples Act is that apply to be substituted as petitioner in the place of the party withdrawing and upon compliance with the conditions, if any, shall be entitled to be substituted and to continue the proceedings upon such terms as the high court may deem it fit," he said in the order.

The judge said as the applicant established that he is a voter of the constituency, he was entitled to substitute for the original petitioner.

The matter relates to the election petition filed by Tamilisai Soundarajan, who lost the election to Kanimozhi, contesting as the BJP candidate.

Soundarajan, who was later made Telangana governor, filed a petition to withdraw her plea, which was accepted by the court recently.

Subsequently, Muthuramalingam, one of the voters from the constituency, filed the substitution petition to proceed with the election petition in place of Tamilisai, which was allowed by the judge.

In her now withdrawn plea, Soundararajan had alleged that Kanimozhi suppressed certain material facts with regard to the income of her husband and her son in the nomination papers.

Kanimozhi had won by a margin of more than 3.47 lakh votes in the April 18 polls.