HC to pronounce order on Thiruparankundram election plea by Friday

The Madras High Court Monday said it will pronounce orders on a petition filed by the DMK challenging the election of AIADMK's A K Bose from Thiruparankundram assembly segment by Friday.

DMK's Saravanan challenged the election of AIADMK candidate A K Bose in the 2016 bypoll. The Thiruparankundram seat fell vacant following Bose's death last year.

Saravanan had recently moved the court seeking withdrawal of his election plea over which the court had already reserved its orders.

The withdrawal petition was filed in the backdrop of the Election Commission announcing bypolls to 18 assembly constituencies leaving out three other vacant seats, including Thiruparankundram.

It had cited pending court cases as the reason for not declaring by-elections in the three seats.

A special mention was made before Justice P Velmurugan by DMK's senior counsel P Wilson that they would like to withdraw the petition as the Election Commission, by citing the litigation pending before the court, did not pronounce the bypoll date for the Thiruparankundram seat with all other 18 assembly segments that had fallen vacant.

The judge observed that when there is no order from the high court, what is the need for the EC to cite the litigation pending before the court for not announcing the date of bypoll to the constituency.

The judge said orders on the election petition would be pronounced on or before Friday.

Besides Thiruparankundram, the DMK has also made a representation to the poll panel for holding bypolls to two other vacant seats, the Ottapidaram and Aravakurichi constituencies.

Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo had recently said bypolls are not scheduled for the Thiruparankundram, Ottapidaram and Aravakurichi constituencies as election petitions are pending in the Madras High Court.

The Ottapidaram constituency is represented by disqualified AIADMK MLA Sundararaj, while Aravakurichi is represented by Senthil Balaji, an AIADMK legislator who is now with the DMK.

Petitions challenging their elections are pending in the Madras High Court.