High Court clears path for Ambasamudram and Perundurai byelections

The Madras High Court on Thursday cleared the way for byelections in Ambasamudram and Perundurai, two of the five Tamil Nadu Assembly seats where polls had been stalled while election petitions sought to seat the runners-up without a fresh contest.

Justice P.B. Balaji refused to throw out an election petition challenging the victory of Esakki Subaya in Ambasamudram, but struck off the petitioner's request under Section 84 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, to declare Congress runner-up V.P. Durai the returned candidate. Mr. Durai had lost by 10,245 votes.

Why the runner-up cannot simply take the seat

Mr. Subaya won as an AIADMK candidate, then resigned his MLA post before joining the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). He had asked the court to reject the petition filed by voter S. Kanthimathinathan. The judge dismissed that application, so the petition — alleging electoral corrupt practices — will go to trial.

But he agreed with senior counsel Satish Parasaran, for Mr. Subaya, that where more than two candidates contested, the runner-up cannot automatically be declared the winner if the petition succeeds. The only proper course is a fresh election.

"Despite being the returned candidate, the first respondent has resigned from his MLA post and the electorate remains unrepresented," Justice Balaji wrote, according to The Hindu. The Section 84 prayer, he said, was "impeding" a fresh election and leaving the constituency "headless". He struck it off under Order VI Rule 16 of the Civil Procedure Code.

Five constituencies on hold since July

The order matters because Ambasamudram was among five seats — Tiruchi East, Perundurai, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai and Karur — where a Division Bench led by Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari had, on 10 July, restrained the Election Commission from notifying byelections. The Bench feared that conducting polls while Section 84 pleas were pending could leave seats represented by two people.

After that stay, Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy on 8 September rejected the election petition against S. Jayakumar's Perundurai win (also an AIADMK victor who resigned and joined TVK). The Commission then asked the Division Bench to exempt Perundurai alone.

On Thursday, senior counsel G. Masilamani, appearing for Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, told the Division Bench that Justice Balaji's order meant byelections must now be held for both Perundurai and Ambasamudram, and that the Commission could not "fold its hands" over the remaining three seats merely because petitioners had sought Section 84 declarations. The Bench reserved judgment on the PIL.

For voters in Ambasamudram and Perundurai, the practical effect is clearer: with the automatic-seat claim removed, the path to a fresh poll is open once the Division Bench and any Supreme Court stay issues are resolved.