MADURAI
The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to revoke cost of ₹ 1 lakh imposed on political parties for their failure to respond to court’s notice. The court directed that the parties would have to pay the cost to War Widows Association, as ordered earlier.
A Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and S.S. Sundar had imposed cost on nine political parties for failing to respond to the court’s notice issued while hearing a public interest litigation petition that sought a direction to the Election Commission of India to mandate all candidates to submit a separate election manifesto.
Posting the hearing to April 22, the court asked the parties to first pay the cost. The court had already said if the political parties failed to pay the cost amount then a property belonging to the party could be auctioned under the Revenue Recovery Act for recovering the amount.
