Voters who received bribes also culpable: Petition in Madras High Court

Chennai: The free flow of cash and kind for votes during the recently rescinded Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly by-poll came under the scanner of the Madras high court on Friday.

A petition has been filed in the court seeking a direction to authorities to punish people who accept cash for votes during polls. When the PIL filed by an advocate NRR Arun Natarajan, of Chennai, came up for hearing on Friday before the first bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, it ordered notice to authorities including the Election Commission of India.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel Nalini Chidambaram said that section 171B of IPC clearly states that bribe takers, as well as bribe givers, are equally guilty of the offence of bribery. Guilty of the offence will face imprisonment up to one year.

The petitioner said, according to a document circulated in WhatsApp, the total amount of bribe distributed was shown as '89.65 crore.

The bribe was paid on behalf of TTV Dhinakaran, a faction of AIADMK candidate and hence he is liable to be disqualified as per section 11-A of the Representation of Peoples Act for a period of six years from voting, he said.

The counsel for Election Commission, Niranjan Rajagopal, said the Constitutional body was mandated to hold elections and to monitor the conduct of contestants during the polls.

He said the collusion of voters in bribery could have been attended to. However, there were practical difficulties as the commission could not either identify or slap cases on 2 lakh voters.

What will be the voters’ response then, and will they come for voting at all, he questioned.