Madras High Court denies interim relief to political parties de-registered for not contesting elections in last six years

Madras High Court denies interim relief to de-registered political parties, upholding Election Commission's authority amid ongoing legal challenges.

The Madras High Court on Wednesday refused to stay the orders passed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) recently for de-registering a host of political parties which had not contested either the Legislative Assembly or Parliamentary elections in the last six years.

Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan said no interim order could be passed in favour of the de-registered political parties since it would amount to allowing their writ petitions and permitting them to contest the upcoming Assembly election in Tamil Nadu.

The judges agreed with senior counsel G. Rajagopalan, representing the ECI, that the balance of convenience was actually in favour of the ECI and not in favour of the petitioners which had admittedly not contested any of the elections conducted by the commission in the last six years.

Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi, Manithaneya Jananayaga Katchi and a few others had filed the writ petitions challenging their de-registration. The petitioners had questioned the authority of the ECI to de-register them in the absence of a statutory power to do so.

Agreeing that the batch of cases argued by senior counsel N.L. Rajah, S. Prabakaran, P. Wilson, R. Srinivas and others had raised “a serious issue of constitutional importance,” the judges directed the High Court Registry to list the main writ petitions for final hearing in the second week of March 2026.

The petitioners had attacked the de-registration orders on the prime ground that Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act of 1951 speaks only about registration of political parties with the ECI but there was no corresponding provision for de-registration of those parties.