CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the Election Commission of India to file a counter-affidavit to the petition filed by the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, challenging its removal from the list of registered political parties.
On September 19, the ECI issued an order removing 474 political parties from the national list of registered parties, stating that they had not contested any election for the past six years.
Challenging this order, the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, through its general secretary Abdul Samad, filed a petition in the Madras High Court. The petition states that the party had contested various elections between 2009 and 2022, and the Commission's order disregarded this fact. It sought to stay the order and to direct the Election Commission to retain the party in the list of registered political parties.
When the case came up for hearing before Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan, senior counsel P Wilson, appearing for the party, argued that the rules allowing removal of parties that had not contested elections for 6 years were introduced only in 2014. Therefore, these rules cannot be applied to the Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, which was founded in 2009. He also argued that under the rules, only the Election Commissioners are empowered to issue such an order, and not the Secretary.
Following this, the judge directed the Election Commission of India to file the counter-affidavit within four weeks and adjourned the hearing.