The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by an advocate seeking a direction to the Chief Electoral Officer to suspend the results declared recently for the bypoll conducted for the R.K. Nagar Assembly constituency since the winning candidate T.T.V. Dhinakaran had allegedly bribed the voters.
Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose refused to entertain the PIL petition on the ground that there was a specific bar under Article 329(b) of the Constitution for the courts to entertain a challenge to an election except by way of an election petition presented under the Representation of the People Act of 1951.
The judges also referred to two Supreme Court judgements wherein it was categorically held that elections could not be challenged by way of writ petitions. The present PIL petition had been filed by S.V. Ramamurthy who claimed that an independent candidate could not have won a byelection without bribing the voters.
