Election plea pertaining to Tiruvarur constituency dismissed

A division bench comprising Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad, who has been assigned with the portfolio of hearing election petitions, dismissed the plea moved at the Madurai bench of the High Court on the basis that it has turned infructuous as the ECI has now announced the election date for Tiruvarur by-poll.

Tiruvarur assembly seat had become vacant following the death of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi on August 7, 2018. Thereafter ECI has announced holding the election on January 28 to fill up the assembly seat.But on January 3, the Election Commission citing the State government's request to postpone the election owing to pending Gaja Cyclone relief work, cancelled the scheduled by-election.

Following this, Vedha alias Dhamodharan, a real estate agent had moved the plea challenging the cancellation. He had submitted that the ECI has no power to cancel the by-election without consulting the central government and sought for a direction to quash the cancellation order.

However, with Tiruvarur, now among the 18 assembly constituencies going to the polls on April 18, the bench preferred to dismiss the petition as no purpose would be served in keeping thepetition pending.