Madras high court
Chennai: Madras high court on Tuesday extended till Oct 28 the stay against notifying byelections for five assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu which were declared vacant in view of resignation of the elected MLAs. On Tuesday, when the plea came up for hearing senior advocate S Muralidhar submitted that the election petition pertaining to Perundirai constituency has been dismissed by a single judge and therefore, the stay against announcing by-election to the constituency must be vacated. The Election Commission (ECI) also filed a counter-affidavit stating that by-elections would not be announced until the disposal of the election petitions.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan passed the order after adjourning the PIL for final hearing. Passing an interim order, the court stayed the announcement of by-elections in all five constituencies. However, the bench refused to pass any order until they received the copy of the judgment dismissing the election petition.
ECI also informed the court that the commission had not yet received a copy of the order dismissing the election petition and that it would be produced before the court once received.