CHENNAI: Madras high court on Monday extended till Sept 8 an interim order restraining the Election Commission of India (ECI) from announcing byelections to the constituencies in Tamil Nadu. The ECI informed the high court that there was no proposal to announce byelections to Trichy East, Karur, Viralimalai, Perundurai and Ambasamudram assembly constituencies until the pending election petitions are disposed of.Chief minister C Joseph Vijay, who had contested from two constituencies in the recently concluded assembly election, resigned from the Trichy East constituency. Similarly, Karur MLA M R Vijayabaskar, Viralimalai MLA C Vijayabaskar, Perundurai MLA Jayakumar and Ambasamudram MLA Isakki Subbiah have also resigned from their respective constituencies.Venkatajalapathi, a resident of Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district, had filed a PIL before the high court seeking a direction to restrain the ECI from announcing byelections to these constituencies while election petitions challenging the victories of the respective MLAs were pending.Hearing the petition, the HC had earlier restrained the ECI from announcing byelections to the five constituencies and directed the commission, and the Union govt, the assembly secretary, chief minister Vijay, and MLAs M R Vijayabaskar, C Vijayabaskar Jayakumar and Isakki Subbiah, among others, to file their responses within three weeks.Petitions were subsequently filed on behalf of former Karur MLA Vijayabaskar and former Viralimalai MLA Vijayabaskar seeking vacation of the interim order restraining the announcement of the byelections.On Monday, when the plea came up for hearing, before the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan, the ECI filed its counter-affidavit. The commission stated that, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directions, it had no proposal to announce byelections to Trichy East, Karur, Viralimalai, Perundurai and Ambasamudram until the pending election petitions were disposed of.The Tamil Nadu govt urged the court to expedite the hearing, pointing out that the five constituencies currently have no elected representatives.The judges directed Inigo Irudayaraj, the DMK candidate in Trichy East, among others, to file their counter-affidavits and adjourned the hearing to Sept 8.
