‘May alter balance of power’: Why Madras high court barred TVK MLA who won by 1 vote from Vijay’s floor test

CHENNAI: Madras high court has restrained TVK MLA Srinivasa Sethupathi, who won from Tirupattur constituency by one vote, from participating in the floor test scheduled on Wednesday.

"The floor test is not an ordinary legislative sitting. Participation in a floor test may determine the survival or fall of a govt. If the TVK MLA participates in such proceedings and his vote becomes decisive, the consequence may travel far beyond the constituency and affect the constitutional governance of the state," said a vacation bench of Justice L Victoria Gowri and Justice N Senthil Kumar on Tuesday.



The restraint order was issued on a plea moved by former DMK minister K R Periyakaruppan, who lost the constituency by one vote.

Rejecting the Election Commission of India's (ECI) objection that such issue could be addressed only through an election petition, the bench said, "The principle that election disputes must await an election petition cannot be converted into a principle that constitutional courts must remain silent, even when the issue is not merely the validity of an election, but the immediate use of a disputed electoral mandate to decide the fate of a govt."

"We are not, at this stage, declaring the election of the MLA void. Nor is this court seating the petitioner in his place. We are only considering whether, pending prima facie scrutiny of serious electoral anomalies in a one-vote result, the returned candidate should be permitted to participate in a proceeding where his vote may alter the balance of power in the assembly," the judges said.

Within hours after the division bench ruling on Tuesday morning, the TVK moved the Supreme Court against the order. Representing the MLA, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned before the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant seeking an urgent hearing of the plea. The CJI agreed to hear the appeal on Wednesday.

Periyakaruppan contended that one postal ballot of Tirupattur in Sivaganga district, where he contested, was mistakenly sent to Tirupattur district. Instead of sending it to the actual constituency to which it belongs, the returning officer of Tirupattur had rejected the postal ballot.