Two separate writ petitions have been filed in the Madras High Court seeking to recover the expenditure for conducting the elections in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur Assembly constituencies – where the poll notifications were rescinded – from the AIADMK and DMK candidates who allegedly bribed voters.
The First Bench of Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan, which was initially reluctant to admit the pleas, later decided to find out whether the Election Commission and the Law Commission are examining the electoral laws in these aspects.
The Bench then ordered notice to the Election Commission and to the three candidates of AIADMK (both constituencies) and DMK (Aravakurichi alone) with a direction to file their counter affidavits within four weeks. The pleas were then posted to August 9 for further hearing.
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The writ petitions moved by M. Baskaran and G. Kunjithapatham, both candidates of PMK in Aravakurichi and Thanjavur respectively, contended that there had been a mockery of electoral process in the two constituencies.
Though the Election Commission has cancelled the elections in view of large-scale bribing of voters, the Commission is silent about whether the three candidates would be debarred from contesting future elections, the petitioners added.
The counsel for the petitioners M. Purushothaman said, “The public money should be recovered from the corrupt candidates who took the whole electorate for a ride.”
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The petitioners sought an interim direction to the Election Commission not to permit the three candidates to contest in any elections until the expenses are recovered.