Madras High Court bins plea for strict scrutiny of SC constituencies

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has dismissed a plea filed by Hindu Makkal Katchi founder Arjun Sampath seeking to restrict candidature in reserved constituencies to candidates professing Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism, holding that such disputes must be raised through election petitions.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan observed that any grievance relating to the disqualification of a candidate or false declarations made in nomination papers must be addressed through an election petition.

The Court made the observation while dismissing the plea by Arjun Sampath, who had submitted that of the 234 Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, 44 are reserved for Scheduled Castes and that only Scheduled Caste candidates professing Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism should be permitted to contest from such constituencies.

He further contended that nearly 90 per cent of the candidates contesting in these reserved constituencies profess the Christian faith and sought a direction to the Election Commission of India to issue a circular mandating strict scrutiny of nomination papers in accordance with the Constitution and the judgments of the Supreme Court.

However, the Court noted that the Returning Officer possesses summary powers to scrutinise nomination papers and reject a nomination where it is apparent that a candidate is either not qualified or stands disqualified from contesting. The Bench further observed that if any candidate had fraudulently cleared the scrutiny process, the aggrieved party could seek redress by filing an election petition.

The Court also observed that the petitioner had failed to place any material on record to show that any candidate had contested the recent elections using a fraudulent certificate or that the Returning Officer had ignored any such defect. In view of these findings, the Bench dismissed the petition.