Chennai, July 10 -- The Madras High Court on Friday restrained the EC till July 31 from notifying bye-polls to the five constituencies in Tamil Nadu where the winning candidates resigned soon after getting elected in the Assembly polls held on April 23 this year.
The five segments includes Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay's Tiruchirappalli (East) Assembly constituency.
The First Bench comprising Chief Justice S A Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arulmurugan passed the interim order and posted to July 31, further hearing of a Public Interest Litigation filed by advocate K Venkatachalapathy.
The bench directed Vijay and others to file their comprehensive
counter-affidavits with all factual and legal assertions within three weeks.
M R Vijayabaskar (Karur), C Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai), S Jayakumar (Perundurai), and Esaki Subbaiya who resigned his Ambasamudram Assembly seat were the others.
In his petition, the petitioner sought to declare that the vacancies arising out of the resignations of various candidates (in the 2026 general elections to the
TN Assembly) do not constitute "clear vacancies" or available vacancies for the purpose of holding bye-elections under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Citing three judgments of the Supreme Court, the bench said the top court had held that the occurrence of a casual vacancy under the RP Act, triggered by the acceptance of a member's resignation, does not automatically render that seat a "clear or available vacancy."
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.