NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the Madras High Court to ensure expeditious disposal of 54 election petitions arising out of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.
Actor C Joseph Vijay-led TVK won the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections held on April 23 this year.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was urged by senior advocate D S Naidu, appearing for PIL petitioner K Venkatachalapathy, that the high court may be asked to set up a dedicated bench to decide the election petitions in a time bound manner.
“It will set a bad precedent,” the CJI said while refusing to entertain the petition. The bench, however, granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the high court for seeking the relief.
The plea, filed through lawyer Samir Malik, sought a direction to the Madras High Court “to expeditiously dispose of fifty-four (54) election petitions presently pending before the Madras High Court arising out of the elections to the 17th Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, within a time-bound period of six months as provided under Section 86(7) of the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1951 or within such period as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper.”
The plea said the election petitions, filed between June 3 and June 18, challenge the validity of elections in various assembly constituencies following the declaration of the results of the Tamil Nadu assembly elections on May 4.
It said that prolonged pendency of such disputes defeats the legislative intent behind the RPA.
It said Section 86(7) of the RPA mandates that election petitions be tried "as expeditiously as possible" and that an endeavour should be made to conclude their trial within six months of presentation before the high court.
It submits that timely adjudication is essential to preserve the purity of the electoral process, uphold democratic governance and maintain public confidence in elections.