Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president MK Stalin suffered a major legal setback on Thursday after the Madras High Court dismissed his plea challenging the election result in the Kolathur Assembly constituency. A two-judge bench held that the petition was not maintainable. The court is expected to release a detailed order later.
Kolathur, considered one of Stalin’s traditional political strongholds, witnessed a surprising outcome in the recently concluded Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. Stalin was defeated by Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) candidate VS Babu by around 8,000 votes.
According to Election Commission of India (ECI) data, Stalin polled 74,202 votes, accounting for 40.32 per cent of the total, while Babu secured 82,997 votes, or 45.09 per cent. The result was declared on May 4.
Stalin subsequently sought verification of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) used in the constituency. On May 7, he submitted his request, with the verification process beginning on July 29.
As part of the verification process, senior advocate NR Elango was nominated as Stalin’s authorised representative to oversee the checking of the burnt memory and microcontrollers of the Control Units, Ballot Units and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines pertaining to 14 selected EVM sets.
Stalin's camp later alleged that certain irregularities and technical failures emerged during the verification exercise. Elango subsequently wrote to the District Election Officer (DEO), raising concerns over the findings.
However, the DEO maintained that the checking and verification process had been completed successfully on August 5 and was conducted in accordance with the prescribed procedures.
On August 6, Stalin wrote to the DEO, highlighting what he described as specific failures identified during the verification. He argued that certificates issued by the engineer could not substitute for detailed technical or failure reports explaining the reasons behind the problems encountered during the process.
Unconvinced by the DEO's response, Stalin approached the Madras High Court. In his petition, he alleged that the authorities had mechanically rejected his objections without adequately addressing the clarifications and technical concerns raised by him.
The matter came before a bench comprising Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan. The bench, however, dismissed Stalin's plea on Thursday, holding that the petition was not maintainable.
The dismissal comes as a significant blow to the DMK president's legal challenge to the Kolathur election result. Stalin had sought judicial intervention over the verification process and raised questions concerning the functioning and technical verification of the EVMs.
The court's detailed reasoning is awaited and is expected to provide further clarity on the grounds on which Stalin's petition was rejected.
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