Lok Sabha polls | Madras High Court dismisses plea to disqualify Virudhunagar Congress candidate Manickam Tagore

Madras High Court dismisses BJP's petition against Congress candidate for violating model code of conduct.

The Madras High Court on Monday, April 22, 2024, dismissed a writ petition filed by BJP’s Virudhunagar IT-wing district president C. Selvakumar, seeking a direction to Election Commission of India (ECI) to disqualify Congress candidate B. Manickam Tagore for having allegedly violated the model code of conduct.

The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice J. Sathya Narayana Prasad observed that the petition appeared to have been filed only for publicity purposes, though the ECI as well as the local police were already seized of the matter on the basis of complaints lodged by the writ petitioner.

The Chief Justice said, the ECI as well as the police would naturally take the required action and that the petitioner could not treat the High Court as a “post office” where a petition could be filed seeking all kinds of directions when the authorities concerned were bound to take action on the complaints before them.

In his affidavit, the writ petitioner stated that the Congress party cadres had issued guarantee cards to the voters with a list of benefits that they would receive after the polls, and had obtained their names and phone numbers. He claimed that those guarantee cards had been issued without proper authorisation.

Therefore, on the basis of a complaint lodged by the petitioner, the Virudhunagar police had registered a First Information Report under Sections 171E (bribery) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of Indian Penal Code on April 14, 2024.

Similarly, stating that he had lodged an online complaint with the ECI too on April 14, the petitioner sought a direction to the commission to consider his representation and consequently disqualify Mr. Tagore from contesting in the Virudhunagar parliamentary constituency.