The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed an application preferred by Theni MP P. Raveendranath Kumar to reject an election petition filed by a voter challenging his electoral victory on the ground of having allegedly indulged in corrupt practices.
Justice M.S. Ramesh also refused to entertain another application made by the MP to strike off certain contentious paragraphs from the complaint.
Justice Ramesh agreed with advocate V. Arun, representing the petitioner, that the MP should face a full-fledged trial.
P. Milany, a 38-year-old mechanical engineer from Palanichettipatti in Theni taluk, had filed the election petition under Section 81 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
He accused the MP of having indulged in electoral malpractices to win last year and alleged that the legislator’s father, O. Panneerselvam, Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, had also misused government machinery to get his son elected from the constituency.
However, Mr. Kumar denied all allegations levelled against him as well as his father and urged the court to reject the election petition since it was ‘bereft of material facts and particulars’. He claimed the case had been filed on presumptions.
Filing a counter to the application for rejecting the election petition, Mr. Milany said his plea was not bereft of material and particulars since he had mentioned the date, time and place where he had witnessed the distribution of clothes and money to voters.
The petitioner was confident of proving all his allegations if his counsel was allowed to examine and cross-examine the witnesses during the trial proceedings. He also claimed that the MP was just dragging out the proceedings by filing applications.
Mr. Milany said the Election Commission of India itself ought to have rescinded the election notification for Theni constituency, as it had done in the case of Vellore, since there were equally serious charges of voters having been bribed in Theni too.
