LS polls: MHC dismisses PIL seeking to advance the counting date of Parliament election
The bench asked the petitioner to submit the provisions from the law stipulating time limit for fixing polling and counting.
Madras High Court (File)
CHENNAI: The Chief bench of the Madras High Court dismissed a public interest litigation seeking to quash the notification issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) regarding the Parliament election date and advance counting date announced in the State.
The first division bench comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy observed that it is not in the domain of the Court to interfere with the election, while dismissing the PIL.
The bench asked the petitioner to submit the provisions from the law stipulating time limit for fixing polling and counting.
Advocate Rajini for the petitioner submitted that there is no such provision to fix the time limit, but the ECI announced the polling and counting dates for the State with 45 days interval in between, which violates the spirit of Representation of People Act.
The general public is aggrieved by this announcement said the advocate and sought to quash the election notification and advance the announced date for counting.
However, the bench observed there is no public interest at large in this PIL, it is seems a publicity interest litigation, observed the bench and dismissed the PIL.
Litigant Ezhilan moved the HC to quash the election notification issued to the State by ECI on March 16 by announcing the polling date on April 19 and counting will be held on June 4.
The litigant sought to advance the counting date as it has more than 40 days delay in between with the polling date.
