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Madras High Court on Wednesday declared Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) candidate and former Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu as elected MLA of Radhapuram Assembly constituency from 2016 to 2021.
He was previously declared defeated by the Election Commission of India by a margin of 49 votes by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) candidate, Inbadurai. Ten years after the election, Justice G Jayachandran today allowed an election petition moved by Appavu and directed the ECI to replace the name of Inbaduri with Appavu as MLA of the constituency in all official records. Following the verdict, Inbadurai announced that he will go for an appeal, stating that he did not agree with the order as the notification that the gazette officer could sign the election papers came after the 2016 elections in question. Reacting to the verdict, Inbadurai said the core issue was whether a middle school administrator qualified as a gazetted officer to sign ballot papers. "I will go for an appeal. Today, the Madras High Court has passed an order declaring my 2016 election in Radhapuram invalid. The only question of law was whether a middle school administrator or a gazetted officer could sign the election ballot papers. The court observed that a middle school headmaster could sign, and that it was valid. But my contention is that they are not gazetted officers. So I went up to the Supreme Court and obtained a stay; the matter had been pending there for the past 10 years. Meanwhile, two elections were completed," he said. The AIADMK leader also referred to the Supreme Court's recent observation that the case need not be prolonged. "Last week, the Supreme Court observed that there was no necessity to prolong this case, as there was no substantial question of law. It stated that such questions could be decided in other cases, so there was no need to proceed further. Now, the Madras High Court has taken up the matter and passed an order, saying that since there is no stay from the Supreme Court, my election is invalid. It held that a middle school administrator is a gazetted officer. This observation is not correct in my view, because only in 2021 did the Election Commission of India issue a notification that B-grade officers could sign election papers. Clearly, there was no such order in 2016. This is my contention," he added. (ANI)
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