Madras High Court Issues Notices to Aadhav Arjuna, Six MLAs Over Election Petitions
The Madras High Court on Tuesday ordered notices to Tamil Nadu Minister for Public Works and Sports Development Aadhav Arjuna and six other legislators in response to election petitions challenging their victories in the recent Assembly elections.
Justice V. Lakshminarayanan directed notices to Mr. Arjuna on two petitions, including one filed by DMK candidate Karthik Mohan, who lost to the minister in the Villivakkam constituency. Mr. Arjuna won the seat with 66,445 votes, defeating Mr. Mohan by a margin of 17,302 votes. The petitioner alleged electoral corrupt practices and sought to nullify the result. The court also allowed the petitioners to serve private notice to the respondents to expedite proceedings, as the case falls under the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which mandates disposal within six months if possible.
In a separate hearing, Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy ordered notices to six other MLAs: Perundurai AIADMK MLA S. Jayakumar, Colachal Congress MLA Tharahai Cuthbert, Uthangarai TVK MLA N. Elaiyaraja, Salem North TVK MLA V. Sivakumar, Tiruvannamalai DMK MLA E.V. Velu, and Sirkazhi DMK MLA R. Senthilselvan. The petitions against them were filed by rival candidates or voters, including Thoppu Venkatachalam, S.M. Anthony Muthu, C. Geetha, R. Rajendran, Arul Arumugam, and S. Vasu respectively.
The court has directed the registry to issue notices returnable within three weeks. The petitioners have been granted permission to take private notice to the respondents to ensure swift adjudication.
