HC rejects plea for recalling witness in Alagiri electin case

Madras High Court today dismissed a sub-application seeking to recall the chief witness and reopen evidence in a petition challenging DMK leader M K Alagiri's election from Madurai Lok Sabha constituency in 2009.
Justice V Dhanapalan ruled that the application by CPI(M) leader A Lazar, who has filed the election petition, cannot be maintained at this belated stage of trial.
Lazar in his application submitted that he found some discrepancies in certain vital documents at the time of perusal of documents filed by the returning officer, the chief witness, and sought to recall him and reopen the evidence.
Rejecting the application, the judge noted that the election petition was filed in 2009 and the tenure of the 15th Lok Sabha was coming to an end within a few months.

He said that in order to achieve the very objective of the Representation of People's Act, the court had taken all endeavours to dispose of the matter at the earliest by granting necessary adjournments for which the reasons recorded has brought the election petition to the final stage of trial.
He said, in the given situation, if the application was allowed and the witness was recalled, it would only defeat the very objective and the scheme of the RPA and the principle enunciated by the Supreme Court in a catena of judgments.

Alagiri, a former Union minister, had defeated CPI (M)'s Mohan in the 2009 polls from Madurai constituency.

Initially, Mohan filed the election petition alleging that Alagiri had committed malpractices and sought to declare his election as null and void.
Since Mohan died during the pendency of the petition, the court had allowed substituting the petitioner by Lazar, who was the party's alternative candidate in the election.