Madras high court
The deposit should be made as a pre-condition for filing nomination papers for the by-election, the petitioner said. CHENNAI: While an elected MLA has an absolute right to resign, the rights of the voter cannot be violated, observed Madras high court , adding that elected MLAs resigning and then contesting immediately on another party’s symbol is a problem. The court, refusing to pass any interim order stalling the by-election, observed that courts cannot interfere in the election process once it is set in motion. The petitioner wanted the court to direct the ECI to examine and initiate necessary legislative and regulatory measures to create a mechanism for ensuring financial accountability of elected representatives who voluntarily and prematurely resign from their seats without legally recognized compelling circumstances. As to the notified byelection to the two constituencies, the petitioner wanted the court to direct the ECI to mandate payment of ‘Election Expenditure Security’ by Maragatham Kumaravel and P Sathyabama who resigned from Maduranthakam and Dharapuram constituencies immediately after their election.
A division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice K Govindarajan made the observations on Wednesday, when a public interest writ petition moved by advocate K Suthan seeking to restrain the Election Commission of India from holding by-elections to fill the vacancies in Madurantakam and Dharapuram assembly constituencies came up for hearing.