Issue certified copies of nomination papers of Udhayanidhi Stalin to defeated candidate, Madras High Court directs ECI

Tamil Nadu MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin. | Photo credit: C. Venkatachlapathy

The Madras High Court directed the Chennai District Election Officer (Commissioner of the Greater Chennai Corporation) to share certified copies of accepted and rejected nomination papers and affidavits of Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin so that the defeated candidate in that body could challenge his election within the legal limit of 45 days.

Divisional Judge GR Swaminathan and V. Lakshminarayanan issued the direction while allowing a writ petition filed by P. Milany of Theni district, who contested the Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni constituency but lost to Mr. Udhayanidhi. Even before the declaration of results on 4th May 2026, the petitioner requested certain attested copies from the Returning Officer (RO).

On 20 April 2026 and 27 April 2026, he filed a statement with the RO seeking certified copies of all objections raised during the scrutiny of nomination papers on 7 April 2026 and also a certified copy of Form 7A (List of Contesting Candidates). The petitioner further requested to provide him with certified copies of the accepted affidavits of Mr. Udhayanidhi and five other candidates.

The RO replied that the objections received against the nominations and Form 7A were posted on the notice board. As regards the affidavits submitted by the candidates, the petitioner was informed that they can either be downloaded from the Election Commission of India (ECI) website or obtained from the District Election Officer who will collate all such affidavits.

After the announcement of the results, the petitioner approached the RO again on May 15, 2026 and again on May 20, 2026 with a request for certified copies of the accepted and rejected nomination papers of the returned candidate, the orders received by the RO rejecting the nominations of 15 candidates, the objections received by the RO to various nominations and the disposal of these objections.

RO did not respond, and therefore the petitioner decided to appeal to the High Court. On 27 May 2026, a Bench headed by Justice Swaminathan ordered a notice to the ECI and sought its reply by 29 May 2026 as it was an election matter which needed to be dealt with expeditiously. Relying on the 2024 circular, ECI counsel argued that attested copies can be issued only after 45 days from the date of declaration of results.

After recording his submission, the judges reserved the verdict on 19 May 2026 and pronounced the orders in the case on 8 June 2026. They noted that the ECI was not heard that the documents could be released only after 45 days when the Representation of the People Act 1951 strictly mandates that election petitions must be filed within 45 days of the date.

“If the Election Commission of India had retained all the documents till the expiry of the period and then provided them to the petitioner, then his right to approach the court itself would have been nullified… Accordingly, this petition is allowed. The second respondent is directed to produce the certified copy of the election documents as requested by the petitioner,” the judges ordered.

Just before issuing the orders, the counsel for ECI informed the court that certified copies of all the documents requested by the petitioner were issued to him by email on June 6, 2026. The court was also told that a hard copy of these certified documents would also be given to the petitioner’s counsel J. Vinoth by June 9, 2026. The judges recorded this order at the end of 2026.

Published – 09 Jun 2026 22:46 IST