The Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a writ petition filed by a member of Naam Tamilar Katchi seeking a compensation of ₹1 crore from Election Commission of India (ECI) for issuing a notification on December 31 for conduct of byelection to the Tiruvarur Assembly constituency and rescinding it on January 7.
Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad rejected the plea of Shahul Hameed alias Tamil Mulakkam Shahul Hameed after observing that the High Courts could invoke its writ jurisdiction for award of compensation only in cases where there was violation of Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution.
In so far as the present petitioner’s case was that he had been declared as a candidate for the bypoll by his party and had spent around ₹1.5 lakh before the election got cancelled. Considering the nature of relief sought for by the petitioner, the judges said that he could seek relief only under the common law remedy by filing a civil suit.
The ECI had rescinded the bypoll notification in January this year after a section of political parties expressed reservations over the bypoll coming in the way of implementation of relief measures in areas hit by the Cyclone Gaja. Communist Party of India's national secretary and MP D. Raja had insisted on cancelling the election.
However, in his writ petition, Mr. Hameed stated that the ECI was in the habit of announcing elections and then cancelling them at will. He attempted to fortify his claim by citing the cancellation of the byelection to Radhakrishnan Nagar constituency in 2017 due to large scale corruption.