The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition that sought a direction to the Election Commission to either cancel or postpone the Tirupparankundram Assembly byelection.
A Division Bench of Justices J. Nisha Banu and M. Dhandapani dismissed the petition and observed that with the election process having already commenced, the court could not interfere in the issue.
The petitioner, K.K. Ramesh, from Madurai had alleged that political parties were distributing cash for votes. He said that the door-to-door campaigning must be done away with to avoid the practice of giving cash and gifts for votes.
Besides, he sought that the number of independent candidates be restricted to 10 and the list of the names be published in print and visual media.
He also sought an arrangement to be made to bring all the political parties before a common stage to express their election manifesto. He claimed that despite the election laws in place, they remained largely on paper as no action was being taken by the authorities against the practice of cash for votes. Also, the Election Commission has failed to take appropriate action against politicians who have filed false assets details, he said.
With regard to Tirupparankundram byelection, he alleged that the candidates are splurging money to buy votes.
