C Joseph Vijay
Justice V Lakshminarayanan raised the question after counsel for the election petitioner, Dinesh, submitted that Vijay had claimed ownership of 50 cents of land in Kodaikanal which had been classified as govt poromboke. His disclosed wealth was around Rs 640 crore. Later, senior advocate Gopal Shankaranarayanan, representing Vijay, argued that the election petition proceeded on the basis that mere incompleteness in the disclosure of assets, of any nature whatsoever, automatically amounted to undue influence and therefore constitutes a corrupt practice.
N C Ashok Kumar, appearing for Dinesh, said the petitioner had records to establish that the land was classified as govt poromboke. However, he said the issue could be tested only during the trial of the election petition and not at the present stage, when Vijay was seeking rejection of the petition. Whether an allegation that a few more crores had not been disclosed could be equated with criminalisation of politics,” he said.
CHENNAI: Madras high court , hearing an election petition against the victory of chief minister C Joseph Vijay in Perambur constituency, asked whether an alleged encroacher of a govt property would be barred from contesting an election? The exchange took place during the hearing of an application moved by Vijay seeking rejection of the election petition filed by Dinesh, a voter from Perambur constituency. The petitioner has alleged that Vijay had failed to disclose certain assets in his election affidavit. Stating that there was a second requirement for establishing undue influence — interference with the voter’s free exercise of electoral rights, he asked, “How does the non-disclosure of an asset interfere with the individual voter? “My client (Vijay) is admittedly a wealthy individual. The voters know that he comes from a wealthy family and that he himself is a very wealthy person.