Madras High Court declines to dismiss election petition from DMK candidate

Chennai: The Madras high court has declined to dismiss an election petition filed by the defeated DMK candidate V.P. Duraiswamy, challenging the election of AIADMK candidate Dr S. Saroja from Rasipuram assembly constituency. Dismissing one miscellaneous application from Saroja, Justice V. Bharathidasan however partly allowed two more applications from her and set aside a portion of the pleadings in the election petition of Duraiswamy.

Originally, Duraiswamy had filed a petition, challenging the election of Saroja mainly on the ground of alleged corruption. Subsequently, Saroja had filed applications to delete certain paragraphs in the election petition of Duraiswamy and to dismiss the election petition itself.

After carefully going through the pleadings of Durraiswamy's counsel V. Arun in the election petition, more particularly the paragraphs which were sought to be struck off by Saroja, the judge said except the pleadings in Paragraph 11, 14, 15 and 17 of the election petition, which were vague and contained only general allegations the pleadings in other paragraphs, which Saroja sought to strike off, contained material facts regarding the corrupt practices allegedly committed by her. It also rightly pointed out the lapses allegedly committed by the Election Commission of India in rectifying the electoral lists and also the failure on its part to strictly enforce the model code of conduct to ensure free and fair poll. Those averments, in the considered opinion of this court, constitute a complete cause of action for trial and in the above circumstances the election petition does not deserve a rejection at its threshold.