CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has said that election petitions cannot be kept pending for years and made it clear that all such petitions pending before it would be disposed of within the six-month period prescribed under the Representation of the People Act.
This election petition was filed by C Geetha, a voter in the Uthangarai Constituency, seeking a declaration that the election of N Elaiyaraja, the returned candidate from the 51-Uthangarai (SC) Assembly Constituency in the Assembly elections, be declared void under Section 100 (1) (c) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Meanwhile, N Elaiyaraja filed a petition seeking dismissal of the petition filed against him.
After hearing both sides, Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy allowed the application filed by the winning MLA seeking rejection of the election petition and accordingly dismissed the election petition. The judge also made it clear that he intended to dispose of all election petitions pending before him within the six-month period prescribed under the Representation of the People Act, and would not keep them pending for a long period.