The Madras High Court has dismissed an election petition filed by one of the losing candidates against the victory of DMK whip R. Sakkarapani from the Oddanchatram Assembly constituency in 2016.
Justice M.V. Muralidaran rejected the election petition after allowing a sub-application filed by the whip to strike down most of the paragraphs in the plaint on the ground that they were vague and unsubstantiated.
“After striking out the pleadings as stated above, no triable issue remains to be considered in the election petition,” the judge said and held that the petitioner had not made out any cause of action against the returned candidate as contended by senior counsel P. Wilson, representing the latter.
In his plaint, seeking to nullify the whip’s victory, petitioner K. Karuppasamy accused Mr. Sakkarapani of having paid cash for votes and having filed an incomplete nomination before the election officer.
‘Proxy litigation’
However, the judge ruled that the allegations levelled by the petitioner were general in character, and therefore, his election petition was liable to be dismissed on the simple ground that it was bereft of particulars.
In his sub-application, the DMK whip had alleged that the present election petition was a proxy litigation preferred at the instance of the losing AIADMK candidate Kittusamy.