8 political parties face penalty of Rs 1 L each for failing to make appearance in PIL

The other parties failing under the cost bracket are Samathuva Makkal Katchi (SMK), Tamil Nadu Muslim League (TNML), Forward Block, Marxist Communist Party of Indian (CPIM) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).

A division bench comprising Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice S S Sundar, on noting that political parties should be responsible units of democracy and role models for their worker, as they have got lakhs and lakhs of followers, said, “If all the political parties who have ruled or aspire to rule the State do not respond to the court notice, one cannot expect the ordinary people to respond to court notice.”

The bench had suo motu impleaded 15 political parties while hearing a PIL on February 14, 2019, which sought for a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to mandate all contesting candidates of Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assembly to submit a separate election manifesto specific to their respective contesting constituency along with their nomination.

But when the matter was called on March 7, only a few political parties entered appearance while many despite receipt of notice did not appear. Based on this, the bench adjourned the matter to Wednesday. But this time around, BJP, DMK, AIADMK, Naam Tamilar Katchi and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam entered appearance through advocates, while eight others did not.

Directing the said political parties to pay up the cost to the War Widows Association within two weeks, the bench also held that in the event of the said parties failing to pay the said amount, directed the respective Tahsildars wherein the head office of those parties are located to auction any of the properties under Revenue Recovery Act and recover the said amount and file a report.

The case has been posted for further hearing to March 19.