Bengaluru, Sept. 25 -- The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the Election Commission of India and the Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, to create a mechanism to recover the cost of by-elections from MLAs who voluntarily resign from their seats soon after winning and to impose a five-year bar on them contesting subsequent elections.

A bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and justice G Arul Murugan said the reliefs sought would require creating new features of electoral law and could not be introduced through a judicial order.

"Relief cannot be granted. It is for the legislature to legislate. We cannot legislate," the court said while dismissing the PIL filed...