Chennai: Madras high court on Thursday dismissed as not maintainable a plea by former chief minister and DMK chief M K Stalin seeking to nullify the victory of TVK MLA V S Babu from the Kolathur assembly constituency.
As to the contention of Stalin that the 45-day period prescribed for filing an election petition has already elapsed by the time the verification process itself was completed, and that he is thereby left without a remedy, the court said, “…a difficulty of this kind, even where genuine, is not a ground on which the constitutional bar under Article 329(b) can be circumvented. Earlier reporting noted: Huge setback for MK Stalin: Madras High Court rejects plea for 100% VVPAT recount in Kolathur loss In a major legal and political setback for the DMK, the Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a writ petition filed by party president and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin. The petition sought a 100 per cent physical verification and counting of VVPAT slips in the Kolathur Assembly constituency. Stalin had formally challenged the election victory of TVK MLA VS Babu in the 2026 Tamil Nadu state assembly polls, alleging widespread voting irregularities and demanding a complete recount.
“No matter how the pleadings are structured, a prayer of this description is, in substance, nothing but a challenge to the correctness of the election and squarely attracts the bar under Article 329(b) of the Constitution,” the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan said. Asserting that there is substance in the apprehension of ECI that it would open a Pandora’s box, if the petition is entertained, the court said, “if every such anomaly, as pleaded in this writ petition, is made a basis for filing the writ petition seeking to unseat the returned candidate and to declare the runner-up elected, the statutory scheme of election petitions, would be rendered wholly illusory. All contentions on merits, including breach of rules and malfunction of the VVPAT units, are left open to be urged before the appropriate forum, if so advised, the court said.
The court then dismissed the petition as not maintainable with liberty to the petitioner to pursue such remedy as may be available to him in law. The court’s dismissal leaves Babu’s victory fully intact, marking a historic turning point in Chennai’s regional politics after Stalin’s three-term dominance in the constituency.
The remedy of the petitioner, if any, lies in an election petition before the appropriate forum.