The Madras High Court on Tuesday reserved orders on a writ petition filed by a member of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) to restrain the Election Commission of India (ECI) from approving the election of former Chief Ministers O. Panneerselvam and Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the coordinator and co-coordinator of the party.
Acting Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu deferred their verdict after hearing arguments advanced by advocate N.G.R. Prasad, representing the writ petitioner J. Jayachandran of Arasanatti in Hosur. During the course of hearing, the judges wanted to know how a writ petition could be maintainable with respect to private affairs of a party.
They also asked how the Election Commission of India could be expected to interfere with the internal elections of a political party.
Replying to the queries, Mr. Prasad said when a political party performs public functions and expects the general elections to be held in a democratic way, it was equally important that its own party elections were also held in the same spirit.
‘Bylaws were tweaked’
He complained that the two former Chief Ministers were declared elected to the two top posts in the party unanimously on Monday after successfully preventing any other person from filing nominations. He said the bylaws were tweaked to suit their convenience and a farcical election notification was issued, without even publishing the voters list, and the winners were declared in no time.
The counsel also relied upon a few Supreme Court rulings and also the High Court’s celebrated verdict in 2007, where it had invoked its writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution to order re-election in 99 wards during the 2006 Chennai corporation polls, which was marred with violence, booth capturing and other electoral malpractices.
