The Madras High Court on Monday directed the Election Commission to submit a report on the alleged bribing of voters of Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency during the April byelection. The court also adjourned to June 23, a plea moved by an advocate seeking a direction to the EC to take steps to file an FIR against Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and others for alleged electoral malpractices.
Advocate M.P. Vairakkannan had filed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition based on the response provided by the EC to his queries under the RTI Act. To a specific query on what action the EC proposed to take against Mr. Palaniswami, AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran and five cabinet colleagues, the EC had said it had directed the Chief Electoral Officer and the Returning Officer to register an FIR.
During the hearing on the PIL, Niranjan Rajagopalan, counsel for the EC, submitted that an FIR has already been registered in April, based on the commission’s complaint and its 34-page report on the allegations. He also produced a copy of the FIR before the court.
To this, counsel for the petitioner S. Duraiswamy contended that the FIR has been filed against none, as the column to specify the accused/suspect names has been left blank. “If the case has been registered against unknown persons, then at least the word ‘unknown’ must have been written in the column,” he argued.
Time sought
On hearing the arguments, the Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and M. Sundar asked Mr. Niranjan as to what were the contents of the 34-page report of the EC based on which the FIR was filed. As the counsel sought time to produce the report, the Bench said, “After hearing the counsels for the petitioner and the respondents, this court is of the view that the annexure to the letter dated April 18 (complaint) of the EC and the case diary of the crime registered by the E2 police station are required. As counsels undertook to produce the same, the petition is posted to June 23 for further hearing.”
