The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a writ petition filed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin to order counting of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips of the Kolathur assembly constituency, and to consequently declare him the returned candidate after nullifying election of Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) MLA VS Babu.
Sibal said that as per the Supreme Court, any application seeking such verification must be made within seven days of the declaration of the election result, and Stalin, who lost the election by 8,795 votes after securing 74,202 votes against Babu’s 82,997, had duly filed his application within three days of the results being declared on May 4 this year.
A bench of chief justice SA Dharmadhikari and justice G Arul Murugan said the former Tamil Nadu chief minister’s plea was “not maintainable”.
ECI had argued that Stalin’s writ petition was not maintainable given Article 329(b) of the Constitution and Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which categorically states that an election to a parliamentary or Assembly constituency can be challenged only by way of an election petition.
Entertaining a “cleverly and artfully” drafted writ petition to set aside an election would lead to the “opening of a pandora’s box,” ECI had said.
